Web3 | Identosphere Blogcatcher

Why Bitcoin's community is warring over transaction type censorship and how Ethereum has already taken action.

The pick comes amid the Trump admin's ongoing push for crypto clarity.

Polymarket and Kalshi are the prediction marketplace kingpins, but these three up-and-coming platforms are worth keeping an eye on.

A new report from the venture firm shows that crypto adoption has surged among consumers, institutions, and stablecoins in 2025.

Pumpfun continues to expand its presence in the memecoin trading stack and now challenges trading bots in what some investors are calling Pumpfun's “Phase 2.”

There will be a token, there will be an airdrop, the company says.

The White House has released a donor list for Trump’s gilded state ballroom.

The Bitfinex-backed stablechain unveiled its first deposit campaign last night, but to users' surprise, it was nearly filled before the public announcement.

In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc Andreessen, Katherine Boyle, and Erik Torenberg dive into the movies that best explain America, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to Tropic Thunder to Fight Club.

They explore how Tarantino’s revisionist masterpiece reimagines 1969 and the end of America’s cultural innocence, why Tropic Thunder was the last truly un-cancellable comedy, and how Fight Club evolved from a left-wing critique of capitalism to a right-wing prophecy about alienation and identity.

Along the way, they trace the parallels between the counterculture of the 1960s and the internet culture wars of the 2010s, and debate whether we’re living through another great American cultural reset.

 

Resources:

Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca
Follow Katherine on X: https://x.com/KTmBoyle

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Three months after the landmark U.S. stablecoin legislation was signed into law, the bill is still in a public comment period.

As part of the deal, Hidden Road is now rebranded as Ripple Prime.

A series of large deposits prior to the vault's announcement is raising eyebrows.

BTC briefly touched over $111,500 as traders bet on a Fed rate cut next week.

The long-time gold maxi says he will "probably launch” a token representing physical gold as part of a platform to make gold easy to transfer and spend.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 17th, 2025 — Oct. 23rd, 2025)

Your weekly PIVX digest is here. Find all critical market insights and community announcements organized in this streamlined report.

Market Pulse Masternode Count: In a clear reversal, the number of active PIVX masternodes jumped from 1,979 to 2,033. This growth coincides with a drop in prices, suggesting that savvy operators probably used the market dip to buy PIVX at a discount and establish new nodes. · Price Check: Following last week’s dramatic highs, PIVX saw a period of consolidation. Its Daily USD Value stayed within a narrower band of $0.16 to $0.19. The weekly average price fell accordingly, dropping from $0.2083 to $0.1744, as the asset reflected the bearish trend gripping the wider crypto space. Trading Buzz: Following a period of intense activity, PIVX trading volume experienced a significant drop, settling at $30 million for the week. Despite this decline, daily volume maintained a solid base, remaining reliably above the $2 million threshold.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 17th, 2025 — Oct. 23rd, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The financial giant will reportedly allow the assets as collateral for loans by year-end, extending ETF policy with third-party custodians.

Brave’s mission is to build a user-first Web—everything we do is built upon the strongest principles of security and privacy. This includes our development of end-user tools like the Brave browser and Brave Search engine, where we apply stringent controls and the highest internal security standards to ensure our users are protected, even from us.

This high standard also extends to our business products, including the Brave Search API, a developer tool for building applications with data from the Web, powered by Brave’s independent search index.

Recently, the Brave Search API underwent a thorough external audit, and earned our first SOC 2 Type II attestation. SOC 2 will give Brave Search API customers the confidence that one of the primary data sources they rely on to conduct their business has been independently verified as operating according to an industry-standard benchmark for security.

What is SOC 2?

SOC 2 is a voluntary compliance standard created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to help service-providing organizations like Brave protect customer data and manage internal controls. SOC 2 evaluates how well an organization safeguards data through a rubric called the Trust Services Criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

SOC 2 compliance is often required by customers and partners to ensure strong data protection practices are in place. It helps customers—in this case partners that use the Brave Search API to build products like AI and search apps—assess the risk associated with our service.

What is the process to get SOC 2 attestation?

To complete the audit and SOC 2 Type II attestation, we didn’t need to change how we normally work or develop. Instead, we needed to document the security controls we already use every day, including how we manage access to internal systems and code repos; how we respond to incidents and outages; how we monitor systems and infrastructure; and how we continue to monitor and assess new risks and threats to our service.

The audit (which took place over an observation period of three months) looked at how well our security practices actually work in real life across our systems. This involved meetings with Brave staff, checking our technical processes, and reviewing our documentation. Prescient Security, an independent auditing company that’s well-known in the tech industry, oversaw the effort. In preparation for the audit, the Brave Search API also underwent an external network penetration test and a Web service penetration test, both performed by Secure Network. They found one low-severity issue that has since been remediated.

In summary, our internal security practices were closely examined, and found to be as secure, stable, and resilient as we strived for them to be.

Why does SOC 2 matter for Brave Search API customers?

Many enterprise customers require SOC 2—it makes the process of security and privacy diligence smoother and easier to verify against an objective, third-party standard. For Brave, SOC 2 verifies our Search API security controls against the review of an independent auditor.

How long did it take to earn the attestation, and how often will the Brave Search API be audited?

An independent auditor verified our security controls, which happened over an observation period of three months. From here on, we will undergo a yearly audit to ensure continued SOC 2 Type II compliance.

What’s in the final SOC 2 report, and where can I view Brave’s SOC 2 audit?

Brave’s SOC 2 final report is available upon request under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on our trust center. We will also add details of our attestation to the security page in the Search API dashboard, which is available for all Search API customers.

After the recent major AWS outage, experts weigh the risks of centralized clouds and the role of decentralized alternatives.

The pair have launched a tokenization consortium for community and regional banks.

The top places to farm rewards on your stablecoins, ETH, and BTC right now.

The onchain social hub is firing on all fronts.

The changes rugged holders of valuable knife and glove skins with new crafting recipes.

Nearly half of the total MET token supply was released earlier today.

The DEX token is up 12% today after falling more than 50% from its all-time high.

Stable's technology will be utilized for future Aave Labs consumer products.

Farcaster plans on integrating Clanker "more deeply" into the app.

Bitcoin and Ether rose 1.5% on Thursday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq approached their all-time highs.

The Zcash Foundation is pleased to announce the release of Zebra 3.0.0-rc.0.

This release candidate includes the mainnet activation height for the Zcash Network Upgrade 6.1 (NU6.1) which will activate at block height 3,146,400. 

Support for this release is set to expire before the NU6.1 activation height. If we find no issues with this release version, we will make a final release based on this candidate prior to NU6.1 activation.

This release also includes significant updates to Zebra’s CI and Docker setup, as well as performance optimizations.

Finally, the release includes the following breaking changes: 

In order to standardise configuration of key infrastructure components across the ecosystem, we’ve migrated zebrad to use a layered configuration using config.rs. This has changed a number of environment variables which will need to be updated in any scripts or configuration files that are using the old names. In order to simplify the Docker entrypoint, we are no longer generating a zebrad.toml file or translating legacy Docker environment variables. Node operators relying on any of the above must switch to the new config.rs equivalents. We have made block template generation part of the default zebra build and have cleaned up zebrad/Cargo.toml to remove the getblocktemplate-rpcs feature flag. As a result, the following build command is no longer supported: cargo build --features getblocktemplate-rpcs

You can see a full copy of the included changes in the v3.0.0-rc.0 Release Notes on GitHub.

The post Zebra 3.0.0-rc.0 Release appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

As blockchain tech gets co-opted by legacy players for efficiency gains, has the revolution lost its edge? Crypto philosopher Paul Dylan-Ennis and Jito's Head of Governance, Dr. Nick Almond, join Friederike to probe this shift from 2017's visionary DAOs to today's Telegram-negotiated votes and whale capture.

Rooted in philosophy and complex systems, they unpack mind-hacking risks via data micro-targeting, the polycentric bulwarks (full nodes, prediction markets) shielding against cultural flips, and why epistemic tools could fortify crypto against real-world censorship.

Their call: Reclaim the ethos through event evangelism and normie outreach for grassroots empowerment.

Topics discussed in this episode:

0:00 - Introduction 1:32 - Nick's journey: Physics to DAOs 3:59 - Paul's path: Philosophy to crypto counterculture 5:54 - Crypto's shift from niche to incumbent tool 7:37 - Governance as crypto's "soul" 10:54 - Early DAOs vs. today's backroom reality 11:45 - Diluted ideas & human workarounds 1:03:44 - Elevating better leaders & social consensus tools 1:05:05 - Hacking minds: Post-ideological vs. cypherpunk 1:07:21 - Polycentric defenses & full node bedrock 1:10:50 - Advice: Evangelize at events & outreach to normies

Links mentioned in this episode:

Dr. Nick Almond, Head of Governance at Jito Paul Dylan-Ennis, Crypto Philosopher

Sponsors: - Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

The move could allow CZ to return to Binance as CEO after previous legal restrictions.

The San Francisco-based fintech team joins Aave Labs as the company looks to simplify stablecoin savings and improve the user experience.

President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, ending his criminal record and potentially setting him up to return as CEO.

A new report by Keyrock finds protocols increasingly prioritize payouts over reinvestment.

Robinhood listed Hyperliquid's native token shortly after Hyperliquid Strategies filed to raise $1 billion for its HYPE treasury.

Kalshi is finally going on-chain through a new partnership with RedStone, just as Polymarket gears up for its U.S. return.

Polymarket, Kalshi seek $10B-$15B funding after recent raises, U.S. expansions, sports betting deals fuel growth.

We’re excited to share that Mike Wax has joined BlueYard as a General Partner.

At BlueYard, we work with founders building companies that move us closer to utopia and away from oblivion — unconventional entrepreneurs tackling the hardest problems out there. To do that well, we need partners who understand what it takes to go from zero to scale, through volatility and uncertainty, when the road ahead doesn’t even exist yet.

That’s why Mike is such a natural fit.

As founder and CEO of Forto, Mike built a digital freight infrastructure company from an idea to a team of over 1,200 people across 18 countries, raising more than $500M along the way. On the way Mike has backed more than 75 startups as an active angel investor, working closely with founders to help them unlock their bold visions. Over the years, Mike has invested in numerous category-defining companies, including Parloa, Orbem, and HarmattanAI. Having joined BlueYard as a Venture Partner in March this year, Mike has already helped source investments such as Manex.ai and two further companies in the resilience infrastructure space.

Mike’s career has been defined by navigating the intersection of real-world infrastructure and technology. That’s an edge where BlueYard has long believed breakthrough value is created. Having lived the founder journey himself, he brings both the scar tissue and conviction that founders need at their side as they push through moments of volatility and growth.

Mike will focus on backing founders at the earliest stages. We’re proud to welcome him to the partnership. If you’re working on something that looks strange today but could shape the world tomorrow, come talk to us.

Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, joins a16z’s Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg to discuss the new world of AI agents, the future of programming, and how software itself is beginning to build software.

They trace the history of computing to the rise of AI agents that can now plan, reason, and code for hours without breaking, and explore how Replit is making it possible for anyone to create complex applications in natural language. Amjad explains how RL unlocked reasoning for modern models, why verification loops changed everything, whether LLMs are hitting diminishing returns — and if “good enough” AI might actually block progress toward true general intelligence.

 

Resources:

Follow Amjad on X: https://x.com/amasad

Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca

Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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The ICO conducted via Sonar will mark the chain’s third community-focused raise.

The post appeared first on Greylock.

Gold’s surge is testing Bitcoin’s narrative, but history suggests this might just be the calm before BTC's next move.

The sports betting giant will use the decentralized prediction market as its financial intermediary.

The MEGA ICO will commence on October 27.

The story of crypto in 2025 is one of industry maturation, according to a16z's latest report.

Bitcoin erases nearly all of Tuesday’s gains as the Trump administration reportedly considers a potential escalation in its trade war with China.

Polymarket will serve as DraftKings' designated clearinghouse.

On-chain analysts found that Ocean Protocol split FET token transfers across dozens of wallets before moving them to Binance and an OTC provider.

KNTQ will allow holders to participate in decisions shaping the Kinetiq liquid staking protocol.

The Ethena community-approved spot and perp DEX launched its mainnet with early access for USDe-based trading.

Back in 2017, masternodes were the talk of the town. It was such a big deal back then that every new crypto project had masternodes enabled. It’s 2025, the hype has died down, and you are probably wondering whether hosting a masternode is still worth it.

In this article, I’ll break down what a masternode investment looks like using PIVX as a case study. I’ll walk you through what masternodes are, their pros and cons, and whether owning one is still profitable.

What is a Masternode?

Masternodes are network nodes with specialized functions. While these functions vary across different blockchains, they are vital for network maintenance, transaction processing, and governance implementation. For example, in the PIVX network, masternodes form the backbone of decentralized governance.

Masternodes are required to lock up an amount of the project’s native coin as collateral. They are rewarded with a pre-defined share of each new block reward.

The Masternode Investment Landscape in 2025

There is no denying that the masternode market has changed drastically over the years. While the early days were associated with high risk/high ROI (often triple digits), there is a more sustainable real yield tied to network utility in 2025.

Running a masternode is still an inherently high-risk investment given the extreme volatility of crypto assets. But I think the focus has shifted towards mitigating risk by demanding established project fundamentals and sustained development.

Perhaps the most significant change is the intensified competitive landscape. Masternodes no longer operate in a vacuum. They must compete directly with sophisticated alternatives across the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, including high-yield Yield Farming protocols, convenient Liquid Staking solutions, and simpler delegated PoS mechanisms.

Pros Passive Income: Masternodes offer a consistent flow of passive income through regular block rewards, paid in the project’s native cryptocurrency. Governance Power: Operators gain influence by participating in the project’s Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), allowing them to vote on crucial decisions and budget proposals. HODLing Incentive: The requirement to lock a substantial amount of collateral enforces a long-term holding strategy, which can be highly beneficial to investors during sustained bull markets. High Barrier-to-Entry: The high collateral cost restricts the number of participants, which can potentially lead to more lucrative rewards and foster a community of highly committed, long-term investors. Cons Price Swings: The most substantial risk is the dramatic fluctuation in the market value of the collateral coin. A sharp price drop can easily negate the value of the rewards earned. Impermanent Loss: The locked collateral is constantly exposed to market volatility, and a significant devaluation of the coin can result in a net loss that outweighs the cumulative rewards. Technical Difficulty: Running a masternode requires a moderate level of technical skill, including the setup and constant maintenance of a Virtual Private Server (VPS) and diligence in applying software updates, although hosting services can simplify this. Reward Dilution: As the network grows and more masternodes are established, the total block reward is split among an increasing number of operators, leading to a decrease in the individual masternode’s Annual Percentage Yield (APY). Let’s Talk Numbers

PIVX is a privacy-centric Proof-of-Stake (PoS) coin that has used a masternode system since its inception. Deploying a masternode on the network requires a collateral of 10,000 PIV (around $1,700 at current market prices). This collateral must be locked for the node to be active.

The estimated APY for hosting a PIVX masternode is currently between 15% and 16%, paid in PIVX. And as of press time, there were over 2,000 active masternodes, representing approximately 20% of the total supply locked.

Assuming there are no price fluctuations, which is never the case, a $1,700 investment in a PIVX masternode today will generate an extra $255 in a year’s time. Comparatively, a $1,700 investment in a traditional fixed asset deposit will yield around $76.5, given that the interest rate in many banks is between 4% and 5%.

More realistically, there are two possible scenarios: an increase or a decrease in the value of PIVX within the year. Profits, as well as capital, can be quickly wiped out if prices crash, and vice versa.

Worth it or Not? Bullish Scenario Strong Fundamentals: PIVX provides clear utility as a privacy coin. Its SHIELD (zk-SNARKs) protocol enhances anonymity, a feature that is highly valued in an environment of increasing financial surveillance. Meanwhile, there are both in-house and external integrations that allow you to spend your PIV coins on things like gift cards, hotel bookings, flights, and even coffee. Decentralized Governance: Masternode operators hold significant power within the DAO, allowing them to directly vote on the project’s future and budget allocation. Sustainable Yield and Supply Lock: An estimated 15% — 16% APY (paid in PIVX) is a competitive return, and the fact that approximately 20% of the total supply is locked signals a strong, committed investor base and reduces immediate selling pressure. Bearish Scenario Regulatory Scrutiny: Privacy coins like PIVX face an ongoing risk of regulatory action, which could lead to delisting from exchanges, thereby severely limiting liquidity and price stability. Market Competition: PIVX must continually compete with other dominant privacy coins (e.g., Monero and Zcash) and increasingly popular, more accessible staking alternatives across the crypto ecosystem. Price History Concern: Similar to many older altcoins, PIVX’s price has struggled to reach previous all-time highs, meaning the investment’s ultimate success relies heavily on future coin appreciation rather than just the fixed reward rate. Conclusion

For an investor in 2025, a masternode is worth it if two conditions are met. Firstly, you must believe in the long-term potential of the project. Secondly, you must be prepared for notable price swings. A masternode investment should be viewed as a way to accumulate a valuable asset over time, rather than a fixed fiat income stream.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

Are Masternodes Still Worth it in 2025? was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

MoreMarkets’ 2025 Crypto Yield Retail Consumer Report shows retail investors favor centralized exchanges and prioritize safety over high returns.

In this episode, a16z's Anish Acharya joins Kevin Rose for an in-depth, fast-paced conversation on the rebirth of consumer technology, and how AI is reshaping what it means to build, invest, and create.

They talk about why AI has reignited the consumer renaissance, what it means to build “weird and working” products, and how the next wave of apps will blend emotion, utility, and creativity in entirely new ways. From AI companions and “emotional interfaces” to the tools making it possible to build entire startups solo, Kevin and Anish explore what’s emerging at the edge of culture and code.

This is a conversation about the future of creation, where consumer tech meets human feeling, and why the next big ideas will come from people bold enough to be weird.

 

Resources:

Follow Kevin on X: x.com/kevinrose

Follow Anish on X: x.com/illscience

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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The OECD Working Party 10 met at the end of September and discussed critical aspects of the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
Topics on the agenda included:

Model self-certifications Potential transition rules Technical rules applying to stablecoins Overlap between CRS and CARF in relation to tokenized real-world assets

At the same time, jurisdictions are rapidly publishing draft guidance and final guidance for implementation. With only a few months until these rules take effect in the EU, Switzerland, UK, and many other jurisdictions, now is the time to prepare.
What to Expect from the Webcast

The background and latest developments from the OECD discussions Practical steps that financial institutions and service providers can take now Key industry perspectives on implementation challenges and opportunities

This webinar provides a clear, practical view of the rapidly evolving regulatory environment around digital assets and help you get ahead of implementation and compliance challenges.

Read More

The post CARF and CRS 2.0: Survival Skills for the Run Up to 2026 appeared first on GDF.

建立一个用户拥有的广告生态系统，用保护隐私的加密证明取代 cookie。

这就是我们资助修复数字广告基础设施的原因

广告问题：

– Cookie 和不透明的追踪系统侵犯隐私，且无法证明用户的真实参与度。
– 广告商为虚假点击和机器人流量付费。
– 出版商因欺诈行为损失收入。
– 用户没有任何控制权或补偿。

AdPriva 用可验证的证据取代了监控。

AdPriva 的工作原理：
1.基于同意的证明引擎为广告参与和转化生成加密收据。
2. ZK证明可以验证真正的人类注意力，而不会暴露个人数据。
3. 通过 Horizen 在链上锚定证明，以实现透明、防篡改的记录。
4. 广告商为经过验证的结果付费，发布商从经过证明的库存中获利，用户因有意参与而获得奖励。

我们资助 AdPriva 的原因：
– 解决建立在破碎的信任模型上的庞大数字广告市场。
– 技术方法：用于低成本批量验证证明的 ZK 友好型基础设施包括 AdPriva Explorer、可验证的同意收据和稳定币结算。
– 符合全球隐私标准的隐私设计基础。

祝贺@AdPrivaAds构建了加密证明基础设施，使广告透明化并由用户拥有！ 这就是利用影响力驱动的资金来解决数字广告问题的方法。

The post ZEN生态又增新成员：Horizen与Thrive资助的第7个项目AdPriva appeared first on Horizen Blog.

The EIP-7825 upgrade is expected to launch alongside Fusaka in December.

The KDA token is down 60% today following the announcement.

USDT already accounts for more than 60% of the entire stablecoin market.

Manifold gives you total control over your NFT drops.

Early governance voting show unanimous support for onboarding syrupUSDT to Aave’s Plasma market.

The two much-hyped performance blockchains take vastly different approaches to tackling real-time execution. Get up to speed on their basics.

Bitcoin surged toward $114,000 as broader markets rallied after a Federal Reserve governor proposed a new type of "payment account” with the central bank.

LangChain: From Agent 0-to-1 to Agentic Engineering

Reflections on a journey at the center of the agent-building wave.

By Sonya Huang Published October 21, 2025 Team LangChain.

Congratulations to Harrison, Ankush, Julia and everyone at LangChain on today’s $125M Series B funding announcement. It’s been a delight working with this team since leading the Series A. 

Beyond the funding, today marks the release of langchain 1.0, a major rite of passage for any open source company. Releasing 1.0 reflects the team’s conviction that LangChain, as currently built and packaged, is the right foundational architecture to become the scaffolding for agent engineering.

LangChain is one of the most popular open-source projects in AI with 90M monthly downloads, and is used by 35% of the Fortune 500. The company has quickly grown from an open source package to a full-fledged agent engineering platform, including a low-level agent orchestration and runtime called LangGraph that’s used by companies such as Uber, Klarna, LinkedIn and J.P. Morgan; and an observability and agent deployment platform called LangSmith used by Clay, Cloudflare, Replit, Vanta, Rippling, Mercor and more.

LangChain is one of the most used, debated and sometimes misunderstood projects and companies in AI. Below are some reflections on the evolution of LangChain to date and how I view the opportunity ahead.

Early Days

Harrison Chase’s superpower is simple: he sees the future of agents. He saw it before just about anybody, and has consistently pushed the frontier of agent engineering forward.

Harrison started LangChain as a nights-and-weekends side project back in 2022, right as ChatGPT was taking off. The original LangChain was a proof-of-concept of what language models were capable of becoming: connect them with tools, chain them together into a sequence of calls and business logic, and voila, model becomes agent. 

Harrison’s vision struck a chord with developers, and the LangChain project quickly became one of the fastest adopted open source projects. By the time we led the Series A in early 2023, it had more than 2,000 open-source contributors and was being used by more than 50,000 LLM applications. After two years of exponential growth, it is now surpassed only by OpenAI in download volume.

September 2025 Download Metrics (PYPI) (in millions) Crucible Moment: LangGraph

As the ecosystem matures, LangChain has matured alongside it, constantly growing the core open source package while also adding in new capabilities.

Because the LLM ecosystem is evolving at such a rapid clip, maintaining the scaffolding to support a developer ecosystem of this size hasn’t always been easy. But Harrison has been resilient and unflappable, constantly listening hard to his challengers and evolving the package towards the future.

Sometime last year, it became increasingly clear that the abstraction level on which the OG LangChain was built was a convenient launching point for developers, but wasn’t sufficiently low-level enough to support all the granular control that developers were craving as the space matured.

Harrison made the hard decision to develop another framework in parallel: LangGraph allows developers to control every step of their custom agent with low-level orchestration, memory, and human-in-the-loop support, and manage long-running tasks with durable execution. 

This was a tough but remarkably wise call. Today, LangGraph is the most popular low-level agent orchestration framework and runtime, used by companies including Uber, Klarna, LinkedIn and J.P. Morgan and downloaded 12M times a month.

Getting one open-source project to broad product-market fit could be a function of luck. Getting two open-source projects to PMF is a testament to how clearly Harrison and the broader LangChain team see the future of agent development.

LangChain 1.0

Today marks a new chapter, merging LangChain’s past and future: the team has completely rewritten langchain in its 1.0 release to be opinionated, focused and powered by LangGraph’s runtime. 

This means that langchain 1.0 has all the “0-to-1 booster fuel” the community has come to expect—pre-built architectures for common agent patterns, improved model and tool integrations, and more—but gives developers access to a deep level of customization and control. 

In addition, helping developers on their agent engineering journey means expanding beyond frameworks into developer tools. Working with LLMs requires a mindset shift, from deterministic software to embracing stochasticity, constantly observing and testing data. To that end, the team has invested heavily in LangSmith, which enables agent engineering across the full lifecycle: observability, evaluation and deployment.

LangSmith has proven successful as a standalone developer platform for LangChain and non-LangChain developers alike, and is currently used by companies such as Clay, Cloudflare, Replit, Vanta, Rippling and Mercor, with traffic growing 12x year over year.

What’s Ahead

LangChain’s ambitions are large. This team will not stop until they become the de facto platform for all of agent engineering. They will get there by deepening their core offerings, and continuing to push the frontier.

Deepening the core: The team has pushed hard on deployment, making it possible to ship your agent in one click on LangSmith, using scalable infrastructure built for long-running tasks. They’ve also launched their first 1P agent, an Insights Agent in LangSmith Observability that automatically categorizes agent behavior patterns, as well as a no code text-to-agent builder experience for business users.

Pushing the frontier: As the model space progresses, the agentic building blocks also evolve. LangChain has been hard at work on many of the core primitives we believe will drive the future of agentic engineering, including memory.

It’s hard to believe LangChain is just three years old. We are proud to partner with a team that has adapted so resiliently, and more important, driven so much innovation in the agent engineering ecosystem. Today’s milestone is just the beginning.

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The deal adds Echo’s community-based capital raising tools to Coinbase’s growing on-chain infrastructure stack.

The plan could open direct Federal Reserve payment access to crypto businesses.

Partnering with Sesame: A New Era for Voice

Sesame is transforming how we engage with AI by building an authentic, expressive agent you’ll want to talk to.

By Roelof Botha and David Cahn Published October 21, 2025

Every so often, a new interface emerges that redefines how we interact with computers. The keyboard. The mouse. The touchscreen. Today, we believe we’re at the start of the next great shift—where voice becomes a primary interface to AI.

Sesame is a company bringing computers to life—not just as tools, but as thought partners. They are building a voice-first AI that you actually want to spend time with, who’s always right there with you.

Building Your Personal Agent

This is not another productivity assistant. It’s something different: a lifelike, expressive collaborator—designed to engage and evolve with its user over time.

Co-founders Brendan Iribe, the former CEO and co-founder of Oculus, and Ankit Kumar, the former CTO of Ubiquity6 are focused on creating a social, emotionally intelligent experience, grounded in conversation and personality. The team’s approach is also rooted in something fundamental—our biology. Humans evolved for voice. It’s our most natural and nuanced communication interface. By leaning into that, Sesame opens up a new design space—one that more closely resembles the free flowing interactive mode of verbal communication. 

Voice is particularly challenging because small changes in tonality, accent, and breathing impact our perception of the person that we’re speaking with. These distinctions may appear to us subconsciously, but we are consciously aware that “this voice sounds human” or “this sounds like a robot.” Roelof saw this first-hand during the rise of YouTube: When faced with tradeoffs between audio and video quality, the company prioritized the former. The YouTube team discovered that while consumers can live with grainy videos, they have absolutely no tolerance for choppy audio. 

The Sesame team, with their obsessive attention to detail, has combined technical excellence with craftsmanship in their pursuit of the perfect AI conversational partner. This shows up everywhere, from the system’s vocal cadence and memory model, to the team’s investment in expressiveness and character. Models are already very intelligent and will only get more intelligent over time. The big unlock for future usefulness is therefore most likely to come from new, more natural ways of interacting with them.

From Research Preview to Real Connection

In February, Sesame shared an early demo, showcasing the team’s voice model through two characters: Maya and Miles.

The response was remarkable. In the first few weeks, more than one million people were drawn to engage with it, generating more than five million minutes of conversation.

Many members of the Sequoia team were among them. We spent hours talking to Maya and Miles, and the experience was unlike anything we’d used before. Sesame’s conversational layer felt different. It doesn’t just translate LLM output into audio—it generates speech directly, capturing the rhythm, emotion, and expressiveness of real dialogue. The voices felt alive—engaging, witty, even surprising. It was fun. Maya and Miles both have character and personality.

We kept coming back, not because we needed to—but because we wanted to. That’s what ultimately led us to partner, co-leading Sesame’s Series B.

Voice in the Real World

Sesame’s vision is to build an ambient interface that is always available and has contextual awareness of the world around you.  To achieve that, Sesame is creating their own lightweight, fashion-forward AI-enabled glasses designed to be worn all day. They’re intentionally crafted—fit for everyday life.

Fashion will matter here. Glasses like this can’t just be functional—you need to look great in them. Sesame has a unique taste, sense of style, subtlety and cultural awareness. These are glasses you’d wear even without the technology. 

Hardware takes time, but it is fundamental to delivering AI that’s integrated into everyday moments. The Sesame team has deep experience leading full-stack product efforts from prototype to global distribution. This experience will be critical to meeting the ambitious goals they have set in front of them—and ultimately to getting a fantastic product into consumers hands soon.

Building the Interface of the Future

We all have a sense that AI will reshape society. But for that to happen at scale, the interface needs to feel effortless and human—not mechanical. That’s where Sesame is focused. Not just on intelligence, but on how intelligence is delivered—in a way that feels engaging, personal and enduring. We believe that craftsmanship and taste will set Sesame apart from the competition.

The breadth and urgency of the problem they’re solving has attracted a high-caliber and growing team, including Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell as chief product officer.  We believe, with voice, Sesame will unlock much of AI’s latent power. Models will continue to improve, but what matters to users is the surface: the quality of the experience, the trust in the system and the feeling that it understands them. 

We’re honored to support Brendan, Ankit, Ryan, Nate, Hans, Angela and the rest of the Sesame team as they take on one of the most important problems in AI: how we connect with computers, and how we feel when we do.

To experience Sesame for yourself, sign up to participate in the closed beta for their upcoming iOS app at sesame.com/beta.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI #Funding announcement Partnering with Flow: The Agile Hardware Future News Read Partnering with Juicebox By David Cahn, Abhishek Malani, Lauren Reeder and Brian Halligan News Read Partnering with Rillet By Julien Bek, Roelof Botha and Cornelius Menke News Read Partnering with Kela: Modern Defense for Israel and Western Allies By David Cahn, Dean Meyer and Shaun Maguire News Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

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The acquisition brings Echo’s token launch tool Sonar into Coinbase’s orbit.

Maple’s institutional-grade assets will be integrated into Aave’s $40 billion lending protocol.

Augusto Marietti, CEO and cofounder of Kong, has one of the most remarkable founder stories in Silicon Valley history.

In this conversation with Martin Casado, Aghi shares how he went from a garage in Milan to building one of the world’s leading API infrastructure companies, surviving years of rejection, living in the U.S. on $1,000 a month, and raising his first $50K while sleeping on Travis Kalanick’s couch. 

They talk about the near-death moments that defined Kong’s journey, the seven-year grind before breakout success, and how APIs became the “assembly line of software.” Aghi also explains how Kong evolved into the backbone of modern API and AI connectivity, and why the coming wave of AI agents will make APIs more essential than ever.

 

Resources:

Follow Aghi on X: x.com/sonicaghi

Follow Kong on X: https://x.com/kong

Follow Martin on X: x.com/martin_casado

 

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了解我们下一个 Thrive x Horizen 资助的项目： Obscura

Obscura 正在为 DeFi 构建可验证声誉层，专注于隐私保护声誉和社交交易。

这就是我们资助解决社交交易信任危机的基础设施的原因

社交交易问题：

KOL 发布虚假的损益截图，真正的交易者如果不公开策略就无法证明自己的业绩记录，而复制交易则需要将您的 API 密钥信任给中心化平台。

目前，如果不透露所有信息，就无法验证性能。

Obscura 解决了这个问题。

Obscura 的工作原理：

1. 无需透露策略即可生成可验证的交易结果。
2. 追随者浏览经过验证的交易者并安全地复制交易。
3. 交易者在保持完全隐私的同时进行构建和盈利。

我们资助 Obscura 是因为他们正在构建可验证信誉层，让交易者无需暴露策略即可证明业绩。

该解决方案解决了一个重大的关键信任问题，在社交交易和 DeFi 声誉方面具有巨大的市场机会。

恭喜Obscura

社交交易只是thriveprotocol的另一个例子 – Horizen 融资的价值超过了炒作。

Horizen与 ThriveProtocol Builder 资助计划为开发商提供高达 10 万美元的资金支持。

开发人员，不要错过这个机会，今天就申请吧！

The post ZEN生态又增新成员：Horizen与Thrive资助的第6个项目Obscura,专注于隐私保护声誉和社交交易。 appeared first on Horizen Blog.

了解我们下一个由 Thrive x Horizen 资助的项目： nyra_perp

隐私永续合约市场以下是我们支持它的原因：

当前的 perps 平台会公开每笔交易和头寸规模。
nyra_perp通过以下方式修复此问题：

– 隐私仓位
– 保密rebalancing
– 私密下单

使机构能够制定无需预先交易和监视的策略。

工作原理：

Nyra 使用智能合约 + TEE，从而实现无余额或策略暴露的私人永续合约。

他们还利用Base的生态系统流动性，同时在 Horizen 上保持执行的私密性。

高频交易的 gas 费用极低

我们资助 Nyra 是因为衍生品市场需要隐私才能被机构采用。

他们与我们有着共同的愿景，即在可扩展的基础设施上将 TEE 与智能合约相结合的清晰技术方法。

他们还了解衍生机制和隐私要求。

恭喜nyra_perp！

隐私永续合约可以让交易者在不受风险影响的情况下执行策略，这就是将机构引入链上的方式。

期待看到该团队的更多表现。

The post ZEN生态又增新成员：Horizen与Thrive资助的第5个项目NYRA-隐私永续债券市场上线 appeared first on Horizen Blog.

The Solana-based DEX unveiled a new product suite today, including a launchpad, dynamic fees, and presale vaults.

This is the second post in a series about security and privacy challenges in agentic browsers. This vulnerability research was conducted by Artem Chaikin (Senior Mobile Security Engineer), and was written by Artem and Shivan Kaul Sahib (VP, Privacy and Security).

Building on our previous disclosure of the Perplexity Comet vulnerability, we’ve continued our security research across the agentic browser landscape. What we’ve found confirms our initial concerns: indirect prompt injection is not an isolated issue, but a systemic challenge facing the entire category of AI-powered browsers. This post examines additional attack vectors we’ve identified and tested across different implementations.

On request, we are withholding one additional vulnerability found in another browser for now. We plan on providing more details next week.

As we’ve written before, AI-powered browsers that can take actions on your behalf are powerful yet extremely risky. If you’re signed into sensitive accounts like your bank or your email provider in your browser, simply summarizing a Reddit post could result in an attacker being able to steal money or your private data.

As always, we responsibly reported these issues to the various companies listed below so the vulnerabilities could be addressed. As we’ve previously said, a safer Web is good for everyone. The thoughtful commentary and debate about secure agentic AI that was raised by our previous blog post in this series motivated our decision to continue researching and publicizing our findings.

Prompt injection via screenshots in Perplexity Comet

Perplexity’s Comet assistant lets users take screenshots on websites and ask questions about those images. These screenshots can be used as yet another way to inject prompts that bypass traditional text-based input sanitization. Malicious instructions embedded as nearly-invisible text within the image are processed as commands rather than (untrusted) content.

How the attack works:

Setup: An attacker embeds malicious instructions in Web content that are hard to see for humans. In our attack, we were able to hide prompt injection instructions in images using a faint light blue text on a yellow background. This means that the malicious instructions are effectively hidden from the user. Trigger: User-initiated screenshot capture of a page containing camouflaged malicious text. Injection: Text recognition extracts text that’s imperceptible to human users (possibly via OCR though we can’t tell for sure since the Comet browser is not open-source). This extracted text is then passed to the LLM without distinguishing it from the user’s query. Exploit: The injected commands instruct the AI to use its browser tools maliciously.

Attack demonstration:

Prompt injection via website navigation in Fellou browser

While Fellou browser demonstrated some resistance to hidden instruction attacks, it still treats visible webpage content as trusted input to its LLM. Surprisingly, we found that simply asking the browser to go to a website causes the browser to send the website’s content to their LLM.

How the attack works:

Setup: An attacker embeds malicious visible instructions on their website. Trigger: User simply asks the AI assistant to navigate to the attacker’s webpage (explicit user-triggered summarization not required). Injection: The browser passes both the user’s query and the visible page content to the LLM in a way that allows the webpage text to override or modify the user’s intent. Exploit: The injected commands instruct the AI to use its browser tools maliciously.

Attack demonstration:

Disclosure timeline Perplexity: October 1, 2025: Prompt injection via screenshots issue discovered and reported to Perplexity. October 2, 2025: Public disclosure notice sent to Perplexity. October 21, 2025: Public disclosure of vulnerability details. Fellou: August 20, 2025: Prompt injection via website navigation issue discovered and reported to Fellou. October 21, 2025: Public disclosure of vulnerability details. Impact and implications

As noted in our previous blog post, long-standing Web security assumptions break when AI agents act on behalf of users. Agentic browser assistants can be prompt-injected by untrusted webpage content, rendering protections such as the same-origin policy irrelevant because the assistant executes with the user’s authenticated privileges. This lets simple natural-language instructions on websites (or even just a Reddit comment) trigger cross-domain actions that reach banks, healthcare provider sites, corporate systems, email hosts, and cloud storage.

A consistent theme in agentic browsing vulnerabilities

Readers will note that each of these attacks look similar. Fundamentally, they boil down to a failure to maintain clear boundaries between trusted user input and untrusted Web content when constructing LLM prompts while allowing the browser to take powerful actions on behalf of the user.

We recognize that this is a hard problem, and we have some longer-term ideas that we’re exploring in collaboration with our research and security teams to address such problems. But until we have categorical safety improvements (i.e., across the browser landscape), agentic browsing will be inherently dangerous and should be treated as such. In the meantime, browsers should isolate agentic browsing from regular browsing and initiate agentic browsing actions (opening websites, reading emails, etc.) only when the user explicitly invokes them.

In the next blog post in this series, we will talk through Brave’s plans for more securely bringing agentic browsing to our 100 million+ users.

This purpose-built L2 for trading perps atop Ethereum is gaining steam.

The proprietary automated market maker has quietly surpassed leading Solana DEXs like Raydium, Meteora, and PumpSwap.

Major crypto treasury companies step up crypto holdings, as Greenlane announces a BERA treasury.

Dogecoin's corporate arm is now the largest equity holder in U.S. Triestina Calcio 1918.

The Solana co-founder has published specifics for the exchange to GitHub.

Decentralized crypto networks continue to produce blocks despite widespread internet services outages.

Bitcoin is back above $110,000, though analysts say they’re now taking a more cautious approach after the $20 billion market wipeout.

Reid Hoffman has been at the center of every major tech shift, from co-founding LinkedIn and helping build PayPal to investing early in OpenAI. In this conversation, he looks ahead to the next transformation: how artificial intelligence will reshape work, science, and what it means to be human.

In this episode, Reid joins Erik Torenberg and Alex Rampell to talk about what AI means for human progress, where Silicon Valley’s blind spots lie, and why the biggest breakthroughs will come from outside the obvious productivity apps. They discuss why reasoning still limits today’s AI, whether consciousness is required for true intelligence, and how to design systems that augment, not replace, people.

Reid also reflects on LinkedIn’s durability, the next generation of AI-native companies, and what friendship and purpose mean in an era where machines can simulate almost anything. This is a sweeping, high-level conversation at the intersection of technology, philosophy, and humanity.

 

Resources:

Follow Reid on X: ​​x.com/reidhoffman
Follow Alex on X: x.com/arampell

 

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Google Abandons Plan to Kill Tracking Cookies, Leaving 3 Billion Chrome Users Under Corporate Surveillance

After years of broken promises to eliminate third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, Google has thrown in the towel. The search giant is choosing to maintain the status quo, allowing the invasive data-harvesting to continue unabated.

For years, third-party cookies have functioned as the eyes and ears of the digital advertising industry, empowering countless data brokers to build disturbingly detailed personal dossiers on users. Google, whose empire is built on nearly 80% advertising revenue, first pledged in 2020 to phase out the cross-site tracking mechanism by 2022. However, the tech giant has been paralyzed by its own conflict of interest.

The supposed successor to the cookies, Google’s much-hyped “Privacy Sandbox” initiative, is being dismantled. The company is retiring key privacy-preserving technologies, such as the Attribution Reporting API, IP Protection, and On-Device Personalization, citing “low levels of adoption” and ecosystem feedback.

In essence, Google has phased out the very tools designed to grant you more privacy, while keeping the primary engine of surveillance alive and well.

This stunning reversal is a clear concession to corporate pressure, demonstrating a fatal flaw in the idea that a company built on tracking and selling data could truly champion user privacy. By failing to deprecate the cookie, Google avoids the market disruption that would have hurt not only competitors but its own ad business.

“The verdict is clear: your data is more valuable than your consent,” stated a digital ethics observer. “Google has cemented its role as the ultimate gatekeeper, ensuring that the age of mass, systemic surveillance remains the default experience for the world’s three billion Chrome users.”

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

Google Abandons Plan to Kill Tracking Cookies, Leaving 3 Billion Chrome Users Under Corporate… was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The fresh raise brings Turtle’s total funding to $11.7 million, with participation from major VCs and angel investors.

Polymarket and Kalshi are now considered the top crypto prediction markets, but the space was once led by other players taking very different approaches.

Tempo and the risks of corpo blockchain-driven brain drain.

Coinbase DEX now lets U.S. users trade Base tokens onchain directly in-app. Here's how to get started.

BTC and ETH fell again on Friday amid global tensions and macroeconomic uncertainty.

Tether wants to empower financial autonomy for humans and AI agents alike.

Some see the initiative as a savvy expansion, while others view it as a red flag for retail investors.

The deal values the upcoming payments-focused blockchain at $5 billion.

The DeFi firm warns that key details about tokenized settlement remain undisclosed, raising questions about market fairness.

The new fund will aim to acquire as many as six mid-sized crypto firms.

The equity and token warrant repurchase marks an unusual move for a pre-mainnet crypto project.

As Ethereum rockets into the TradFi limelight, with rising inflows into ETFs and DATs, experts consider the question: is that a good thing for DeFi’s largest chain?

Feist's departure from full-time work at the EF comes amid increased corporate investment in building L1 blockchains.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 10th, 2025 — Oct. 16th, 2025)

Your weekly PIVX recap is here. Get all the key market insights and community updates in one easy summary.

Market Pulse Masternode Count: The number of active masternodes plunged to 1,979, down sharply from last week’s 2,071. This decline follows a week where PIVX saw a significant price spike as attention shifted to privacy coins. This sharp drop suggests that some masternode owners may have opted to take profit following the recent rally in direct response to the market’s bullish price movement. Price Check: PIVX experienced a high-octane week, with its Daily USD Value swinging dramatically between $0.18 and $0.25. This translated to a robust weekly average of $0.2083, shattering the prior week’s $0.15 average. While prices briefly touched $0.33 during the peak, a late-week decline reflected broader market pessimism, leading to a slight consolidation. Trading Buzz: Riding on the wave of last week’s excitement, PIVX trading volume surged again, climbing to nearly $260 million this week. This is more than double last week’s already high volume of $104 million.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 10th, 2025 — Oct. 16th, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The team behind LAUNCHCOIN announced it is switching to a new token design and ticker, implying that the current asset is outdated.

Hollywood is going through a major cultural and creative reset, and Marc Andreessen thinks it’s long overdue.

In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc joins Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle to dissect the past decade of filmmaking, from the rise of “the message” in every movie to the return of genuine comedy and art. They cover the post-woke shift in Hollywood, the financial collapse of the streaming era, and why AI could spark a renaissance for a new generation of independent filmmakers.

Marc also shares his favorite recent films (and the ones he thinks aged terribly), why Edington might be the first true “Capital-A Art” film in years, and how AI could democratize storytelling the way digital cameras did in the 1990s.

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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With new U.S. stablecoin rules in place, Visa says banks are starting to explore blockchain-based lending markets.

Perpetual derivatives DEXs across DeFi were overwhelmed by intense volatility on Friday, leading to multiple platform outages.

Kraken can now list and clear futures products under U.S. regulatory oversight.

Euler is creating a "triad" of core products, spanning trading, borrowing, and stablecoins under one roof.

Surveillance tech is having a moment, but so are crypto privacy builders.

The Bitcoin Ordinals "spam" dispute has led to new soft fork chatter.

The liquid staking vault reached its 500,000 HYPE initial deposit threshold in minutes.

Sony Bank files for a national trust charter to issue stablecoins, as Anchorage Digital expands its banking services.

Binance is facing a social media firestorm after one founder’s post ignited a debate about listing fees on CEXs.

It's the firm's third major acquisition of 2025.

The sitting Fed Governor and former Vice Chair for Supervision is worried about "regulatory arbitrage" incentives.

CZ's YZi Labs bets on RWA chain Canton Network with investment into privacy-focused trading platform.

a16z makes a major bet on the Solana infrastructure protocol in its latest token deal.

Bitcoin slides below $109,000 as investors react to trade frictions, developments in Venezuela, and expectations of an upcoming Fed rate cut.

Brave has spent a decade building a privacy-first browser that empowers users with tools like ad-blocking and fingerprinting protection, now serving 100 million monthly active users.

Security engineer Kyle Den Hartog joins Friederike to unpack the centralization traps in digital identity from email's spam-driven dominance to one-size-fits-all DeFi lending rates and how Brave counters them with BAT's user-rewarding ad model, zero-knowledge personalization, and wallets that act as privacy guardians.

Kyle warns of on-chain transparency's risks to consumer behavior, advocates for intent-based "vendor relationship management" advertising, and draws historical lessons on censorship's chilling effects amid rising regulations like EU chat controls.

He shares Brave's vision for seamless private payments and user-controlled algorithms to reclaim the open web from Big Tech monopolies.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Introduction Kyle's background in security and identity Why identity and privacy matter The history and centralization of digital identity Email as a cautionary tale for decentralization Brave's privacy-first vision and 100M users BAT: Rewarding users for attention Challenges and evolutions in Brave's ad model Zero-knowledge for intent-based ads Brave Wallet: Privacy by default On-chain privacy pitfalls and wallet solutions Browser wallets vs. built-in security Censorship, regulations, and history's lessons Fixing social media algorithms Brave's 5-year vision

Links mentioned in the episode:

Kyle Den Hartog, Security Engineer at Brave: https://x.com/PryvitKyle

Brave Browser: https://brave.com/

Sponsors:

Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at ⁠⁠gnosis.io ⁠⁠

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

The investment firm projects SOL could reach $900 soon and $2,000 in the medium term as tokenization grows.

From politics to technology to real estate, Keith Rabois has bold predictions for America’s next decade.

In this conversation with Erik Torenberg, Keith breaks down why he believes the U.S. is entering a new economic expansion driven by AI, productivity, and sovereign technology. They discuss how AI could lift GDP growth to 5%, why sovereign AI projects are inevitable, and why America can “grow its way out” of debt.

Keith also shares his takes on Trump’s second term, the decline of legacy institutions, OpenAI’s dominance, the future of Google and Microsoft, and how startups like Ramp and Opendoor are rewriting the rules of fintech and housing.

 

Resources:

Follow Keith on X: https://x.com/rabois

Follow Alex on X: https://x.com/arampell

 

Stay Updated: 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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The reverse split is expected to lift ETHZ share prices above $10.

Jovay Network has flown under the radar until it mentioned Ethereum in a social media post today.

The accidental move briefly made PayPal’s PYUSD the largest stablecoin in the world before Paxos burned the newly minted supply.

A guide to 51% attacks on blockchain networks.

The Blue Carpet intends to help project teams navigate the Coinbase listing process with day-one support.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and major altcoins fall as macroeconomic uncertainty continues to weigh on sentiment.

FOMO turns memecoin trading into a transparent, mobile-first experience where you follow, tail, and trade alongside friends

The EF continues to validate the use case of Ethereum’s financial infrastructure.

New developers preferred the Ethereum ecosystem by a wide margin in 2025.

Erebor Bank intends to service the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence sectors.

The Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain is preparing a community-focused token sale as ICOs regain popularity.

The registration period is expected to be ongoing until October 27, 2025.

The wallet and CEX, founded by ex-FTX employees, is integrating Superstate’s Opening Bell, just days after liquidated users reported that their deposits disappeared.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “privacy?” I bet you think about protecting your space from the eyes of prying neighbours and co-workers. I wouldn’t be wrong to say that privacy is now being framed as a legal or technological problem. Virtually every website has a privacy page, and end-to-end encryption has become a major selling point for apps.

But I think that privacy is a deeply psychological phenomenon. It is an essential human need for control over social interaction and personal information.

Privacy isn’t about Hiding

Traditional definitions of privacy, such as the “right to be let alone,” have been expanded in the psychological context to reflect its active, regulatory nature. Social psychologist Irwin Altman’s influential Privacy Regulation Theory frames privacy not as a static state, but as a dialectical and dynamic boundary regulation process.

The goal, according to Altman, is to achieve an optimal level of privacy. This would mean a fluctuating balance between the desired level of social contact and the actual level. When our actual privacy is less than desired (too much exposure), we feel crowded or annoyed. And when it is greater (too much isolation), we feel lonely. This constant, shifting need for control highlights privacy’s core psychological functions:

Self-Development and Autonomy: Privacy offers a critical space for self-reflection, emotional release, and the integration of experiences into a cohesive self-identity. It provides a secure place to “recharge” from social demands and avoid being manipulated or dominated by the expectations of others. Emotional Release: Having a private space allows for the safe expression of feelings and impulses that might be considered inappropriate in public, serving as a psychological “release valve.” Protected Communication: Privacy is a prerequisite for intimacy. The selective sharing of personal information is necessary to build trust, form stable relationships, and receive social support. The Digital Age and the “Privacy Paradox”

The rise of digital technologies has profoundly complicated our psychological relationship with privacy. A phenomenon known as the Privacy Paradox emerged as a key area of study. People often express high levels of concern about their online privacy, but simultaneously engage in significant self-disclosure on social media and other platforms.

Psychologists have explored several explanations for this apparent contradiction, moving beyond the idea that people simply don’t care:

Privacy Calculus Theory: This is one of the most common models, suggesting people engage in a rational (or seemingly rational) cost-benefit analysis. They weigh the perceived risks (such as identity theft, data misuse) against the perceived benefits (e.g., social connection, personalized services, convenience) of disclosing information. Often, the immediate, tangible benefits are overweighted compared to abstract, long-term risks. Lack of Awareness and Control: Users frequently lack full information about what data is being collected, how it is being used, and the long-term consequences of disclosure. We are all culprits in this regard. Have you ever read the terms of service of any of the popular apps you use? The bottom line is that when the control is external and the process is opaque, it becomes difficult to maintain the psychological boundary necessary for a feeling of privacy. Contextual Privacy: The meaning and expectation of privacy are highly contextual. What we willingly share with a peer on a messaging app is very different from what we would share with an employer or a stranger. Yet online platforms often blur these distinct social contexts.

In conclusion, privacy is not withdrawal from society. It is the selective control that empowers us to participate in it on our own terms.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

The Psychology of Privacy was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This summary from our recent webinar, unpacks the UK’s proposed framework, explore lessons from the EU’s MiCA regime and discusses how the stablecoin market actually works in practice.  It outlines potentially more effective, market-consistent approaches and shows how the UK can balance resilience with growth, ensuring stablecoins serve both users and the UK economy more broadly.

The post Stablecoins in the UK: Building Smart Regulation for a Growing Market appeared first on GDF.

Ben Horowitz founded Loudcloud in the middle of the dot-com bust and sold it for $1.6 billion, then led Andreessen Horowitz from its founding to $46 billion in committed capital. Ali Ghodsi co-founded Databricks, stepped in as CEO during a crisis, and led it to a valuation of over $100 billion.

In this episode of “Boss Talk”, Ben and Ali join a16z General Partners Sarah Wang and Erik Torenberg to share founder war stories, how to hire and make deals, how to keep culture intense without burning employees out, and why founders should raise their ambitions even higher.

 

Resources:
Follow Ali on X: https://x.com/alighodsi

Learn more about Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/

Follow Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz

Follow Sarah on X: https://x.com/sarahdingwang

Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

 

Stay Updated: 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

Subscribe to a16z on Substack: https://a16z.substack.com/

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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nxSOL enables users to earn SOL staking rewards and additional yield in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.

Earlier this year, we shared that .brave domains now resolve natively in Brave—both in Brave Wallet and directly in the Brave browser, without the need for extensions or extra setup. It was a milestone moment for the future of on-chain identity and decentralized websites.

Now, we’re taking things a step further with the .brave “Get Yours, Build Now” website-building challenge. To celebrate, we’re giving away 15,000 BAT and $20,000 USD in .brave domain credits, premium domains like winner.brave, and more to the boldest and most creative websites built on-chain.

This is your chance to unleash your creativity, show off your ideas, and shape what the on-chain Web can look like.

Entry period: October 15, 12pm ET to November 12, 11:59pm ET

Winners announced: November 20, 2025 (winners will be announced on the contest page, and on the @brave and @unstoppableweb X channels).

What are the prizes for participating?

Participants will be eligible to win from a prize pool of 15,000 BAT and $20,000 in .brave domain credits:

1st place: 9,000 BAT + $10,000 .brave credits + winner.brave + 1st-place badge 2nd place: 3,750 BAT + $5,000 .brave credits + 2nd-place badge 3rd place: 2,250 BAT + $3,000 .brave credits + 3rd-place badge 4th - 10th place: official Brave merch

In addition to the main prizes, we’re giving away 3 weekly people’s choice awards, selected by the community, to recognize standout site builders. Submit your website by the dates below to qualify for that week’s award:

Award 1: Submit by 11:59pm ET on October 23, 2025 (winner announced 5pm ET on October 28, 2025) Award 2: Submit by 11:59pm ET on October 30, 2025 (winner announced 5pm ET on November 4, 2025) Award 3: Submit by 11:59pm ET on November 6, 2025 (winner announced 5pm ET on November 11, 2025)

Each people’s choice winner will receive:

Official Brave merch 300 BAT $700 .brave domain credits How people’s choice works The challenge landing page updates every Friday with that week’s eligible submissions. The community can vote through 11:59pm ET on Mondays. Winners are announced on Tuesdays on the weekly BAT community call at 2pm PT / 5pm ET. Join the call on Brave Talk (same link every week) where you can actively participate and interact with the Brave team. Alternatively, watch the live broadcast on @AttentionToken X. How to enter the website-building challenge Register your .brave domain. (Already have one? Skip to step 2.) Build your website. It could be a personal site, DApp, community hub, or anything in between. Submit your entry by the contest deadline on November 12, 2025. Participants can submit entries sooner to qualify for one of three people’s choice awards. Win your share of the prize pool: 15,000 BAT, $20,000 in .brave domain credits, premium domains, and more.

The contest will run for a one month period, from October 15, 2025 to November 12, 2025. Once the entry period is over, all submissions will be evaluated based on a number of criteria, including content and media; interactivity and integrations; design; and functionality and performance. Winners will be announced on November 20, 2025.

The DeFi hub and liquidity layer on the Sei blockchain is off to a strong start.

The gaming studio unveiled its flagship NFT on Oct. 8, which rallied 500% above its mint price on opening day.

Loot Survivor 2 returns Loot’s IP to Starknet with real rewards, smoother UX, and fully onchain RPG gameplay.

CJ Hetherington ignited a Crypto Twitter firestorm after revealing Binance’s alleged steep token listing requirements.

Tokenization and perps offer retail access to pre-IPO markets but, without liquidity, they'll worsen dysfunction.

Digital assets often outperform traditional markets, driven by institutional adoption and tokenized products.

Tether's payment resolves a year-long legal dispute over bitcoin collateral liquidations.

The ICO raised 200x its $750,000 minimum, and more than 50x its hard cap.

Bitcoin and major altcoins continue to slide days after the largest-ever forced liquidations.

Stripe is expanding its crypto capabilities with the launch of USDC-powered subscriptions on Base and Polygon.

The legacy Ethereum wallet by Consensys is teaming up with the largest on-chain prediction market.

The MON airdrop precedes Monad’s anticipated mainnet launch, scheduled for later this year.

The Department of Justice history has seized 127,271 BTC tied from alleged Chinese crime lord Chen Zhi.

Partnering with Flow: The Agile Hardware Future

A new manufacturing generation is emerging, and Pari and his team are leading the way.

By Roelof Botha and Zefi Hennessy Holland Published October 14, 2025 Flow founder Pari Singh.

The American hardware industry is undergoing a renaissance. New players are emerging across aerospace, automotive, defense, and beyond—and they must iterate more quickly, and with more complexity, than ever before. Just as software developers needed new tools to move from a waterfall framework to the more flexible agile approach, hardware now needs a different type of collaborative platform—one that can instantly align requirements across systems to build safely, reliably, and quickly. 

That’s why Flow Engineering is poised to have a generational impact.

Whether it’s an electric vehicle, a rocket, or a robot, building complex hardware requires full context throughout the system: changing the thermal parameters for a single component, for example, can have a ripple effect through the rest of the design. But the legacy products used to track these requirements are clunky artifacts of a bygone era and simply don’t measure up. Engineers are reluctant to use them, and they make development cycles, already famously long in hardware, even longer.

Today’s electric vehicles have more in common with computers than internal combustion vehicles. And Flow founder Pari Singh knows that, like software, hardware’s future is agile. His insights are making Flow the default requirements management platform for the next generation of hardware companies.

Built specifically for agile hardware teams, Flow serves as a modern system of record, automatically verifying changes and propagating them downstream. Its magic lies in the collaboration it enables. Flow feels natural and intuitive for systems engineers and their domain-specific colleagues alike, and integrates with a full suite of engineering tools. Teams can break down silos and iterate continuously, working together and with outside partners in real time, all from a single source of truth. As with software development, these shorter feedback loops dramatically reduce time to market—which gives Flow’s customers a critical competitive advantage.

Born and raised in London and obsessed with engineering from a young age, Pari was a 22-year-old Imperial College graduate when he launched a design consultancy for hybrid rocket engines. He built a tool to do in two hours what took others twelve weeks. This led to the innovative idea behind Flow. As we at Sequoia have gotten to know Pari, we’ve found him to be clear-thinking, driven, and resilient. He is also relentless in his pursuit of top talent and building a truly special team—which is fortunate given the company’s rapid growth.

Flow is working with top companies across space, defense, nuclear, aero, and robotics, including Rivian, Joby, Astranis, and Radiant Nuclear. As this next generation of hardware businesses continues to scale, we at Sequoia are pleased to lead the Series A to help Flow accelerate their success. The team is hiring now both in London and at their new HQ in San Francisco.

Through the combined effort of systems engineers and their colleagues, a collection of pumps, valves, and pipes can become a spaceship—and the future of hardware engineering itself will require the same kind of extraordinary collaboration. In this industry-wide effort to build the hardware of tomorrow, we believe Pari and the team at Flow are leading the way.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #Enterprise #Funding announcement Partnering with Rillet By Julien Bek, Roelof Botha and Cornelius Menke News Read Crucible Moments: The Pivotal Decisions That Define Us By Roelof Botha Perspective Read Partnering with Magentic By Julien Bek and Zefi Hennessy Holland News Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

The post Partnering with Flow: The Agile Hardware Future appeared first on Sequoia Capital.

Nathan Labenz is one of the clearest voices analyzing where AI is headed, pairing sharp technical analysis with his years of work on The Cognitive Revolution.

In this episode, Nathan joins a16z’s Erik Torenberg to ask a pressing question: is AI progress actually slowing down, or are we just getting used to the breakthroughs? They discuss the debate over GPT-5, the state of reasoning and automation, the future of agents and engineering work, and how we can build a positive vision for where AI goes next.

 

Resources:

Follow Nathan on X: https://x.com/labenz

Listen to the Cognitive Revolution: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yHyok3M3BjqzR0VB5MSyk

Watch Cognitive Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/@CognitiveRevolutionPodcast

 

Stay Updated: 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

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Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Stay Updated:

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Implementation hinges on foreign partners willing to issue tokenized versions of shares of Russian firms, despite sanctions from the EU and U.S.

Vector Bot SDK and MyPIVXWallet

The Vector Bot SDK has undergone significant improvements to enhance functionality and user experience.

Key updates include:

Multiple Image Sending Fix: A critical bug affecting users sending multiple images has been resolved. The patch ensures seamless multi-image transmission, improving reliability for media-heavy interactions. [Ref: Vector-SDK/pull/2] Reaction Functionality: The SDK now supports sending reactions, adding a new layer of interactivity for users. This feature enhances engagement by allowing expressive responses within the platform.
[Ref: Vector-SDK/pull/3] Typing Indicators: A new typing indicator feature has been integrated to provide visual feedback during bot response delays. This addition improves user experience by setting clear expectations for response times. [Ref: Vector-SDK/pull/1] SDK Examples: Ongoing development of additional bot examples is in progress, aimed at showcasing the SDK’s capabilities. These examples are being refined and are slated for release by the end of the month. [Ref: Vector-SDK-Example]

Closed-Source Bot Development

Significant efforts have been dedicated to polishing and expanding the closed-source bot system. A key focus was implementing a robust ban/limitation system to manage user interactions across three distinct chat systems and a web UI. This complex feature required substantial development time but is now complete, paving the way for a BETA release in the upcoming month.

MyPIVXWallet UI Enhancements

The MyPIVXWallet interface has received several updates to improve aesthetics and usability:

Homepage Cards Improvement: The homepage cards have been enhanced to provide a more intuitive and visually appealing user experience, aligning with modern design standards.
[Ref: MyPIVXWallet/pull/595] Navigation Bar Styling: The navigation bar has been updated to match the MyPIVXWallet background styling, ensuring a cohesive look across the platform. [Ref: MyPIVXWallet/pull/596] Footer Modernization: The footer has been redesigned with a modern aesthetic, contributing to an improved overall user interface.
[Ref: MyPIVXWallet/pull/597]

Summary
This month’s development efforts focused on resolving critical bugs, enhancing SDK functionality, and improving the MyPIVXWallet user interface. The addition of reaction support and typing indicators in the Vector Bot SDK, alongside the ban system for the closed-source bot, positions the platform for a robust BETA release. Concurrently, MyPIVXWallet’s UI enhancements elevate its visual and functional appeal, ensuring a polished user experience.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To learn more about what PIVXLabs is doing please join their Discord:
https://discord.gg/5hkRpcBx

PIVXLabs Development Report was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The platform’s founders warned earlier that without new funding, MetaDAO would have only 24 months of runway.

Discord has confirmed a significant data breach involving a third-party customer service provider, resulting in the exposure of sensitive government-issued photo identification for approximately 70,000 users.

The company disclosed the incident last week, noting that the breach did not involve a direct attack on its core systems. Instead, hackers successfully compromised an unnamed external vendor responsible for handling customer support and Trust & Safety functions.

The most critical data exposed belongs to users who had communicated with the support teams, particularly those who submitted documents for age-related appeals. Discord stated that these users may have had photos of their government-issued IDs, such as driver’s licenses or passports, exposed.

The volume of the compromise is under dispute. Discord identified about 70,000 users globally who may have had their ID photos accessed. However, the hackers behind the incident have claimed to have stolen a far greater volume of data, including up to 1.5 terabytes of age verification-related photos. Discord has dismissed these larger numbers as “incorrect” and part of the extortion attempt.

In addition to the sensitive photo IDs, the unauthorized party gained access to a wide range of personal information shared with customer service agents, including real names, email addresses, IP addresses, limited billing information, and internal corporate data.

Discord confirmed that full credit card numbers, CCV codes, and user passwords were not impacted by the breach. User messages and activity outside of customer support conversations were also unaffected.

Third-Party Risk Highlights a Systemic Flaw

The incident is a reminder of the escalating risks associated with third-party vendors. A company’s overall security posture is only as strong as its weakest link in the supply chain. In this case, a customer support platform, which often retains sensitive data to manage user appeals, became the primary target.

Following the discovery of the breach, a Discord spokesperson confirmed that the company took immediate action, stating, “We’ve secured the affected systems and ended work with the compromised vendor.” But the deed has been done, and what could possibly go wrong?

Discord has notified all users whose data may have been impacted and is working with law enforcement, cybersecurity experts, and data protection authorities to manage the aftermath of the incident. The company maintains that it will not reward the perpetrators for their illegal actions. Affected users are advised to be highly vigilant for suspicious communications, as the stolen personal data could be used in phishing or identity fraud attempts.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

Discord Breach Exposes Government IDs of 70,000 Users Via Third-Party Vendor was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As crypto markets saw record liquidations in Friday’s market plunge, top DeFi protocols like Aave, Hyperliquid, and Morpho faced major pressure — and held up under it.

From GPT-1 to GPT-5, LLMs have made tremendous progress in modeling human language. But can they go beyond that to make new discoveries and move the needle on scientific progress?

We sat down with distinguished Columbia CS professor Vishal Misra to discuss this, plus why chain-of-thought reasoning works so well, what real AGI would look like, and what actually causes hallucinations.

 

Resources:

Follow Dr. Misra on X: https://x.com/vishalmisra

Follow Martin on X: https://x.com/martin_casado

 

Stay Updated: 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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In this episode, Sebastien is joined by Jelena Djuric, co-founder of Noble, a generic asset issuance chain built for the Cosmos ecosystem. Jelena shares her journey into crypto, which began with an interest in political science, leading her to discover Bitcoin's potential. She describes the origins of Noble, created to solve a critical need within Cosmos: a native, fungible source of liquidity like USDC.

Before Noble, assets were often bridged in fragmented ways, creating poor user experiences. Noble was designed as a simple, secure, and neutral "asset issuance hub," a purpose-built chain for natively issuing assets and distributing them throughout the Cosmos network via IBC.

Jelena emphasizes that Noble is intentionally "boring," with a minimal feature set to reduce the attack surface. It operates with a proof-of-authority consensus model to meet the compliance needs of asset issuers like Circle. Jelena also discusses the importance of CCTP for moving USDC between Cosmos and other ecosystems, with Noble as the routing hub. Looking ahead, Jelena sees a future where Noble supports a diverse range of assets beyond stablecoins, including RWAs.

Topics discussed in this episode: Introduction Jelena's background and entry into crypto Why fragmented liquidity is holding crypto back Noble's vision for unifying liquidity Why a "boring" chain is a more secure chain Noble's proof-of-authority model for issuer trust Bringing a single source of truth for USDC to the Interchain Using CCTP to connect liquidity across ecosystems Noble's business model The future of solving liquidity for RWAs
Links mentioned in this episode: Jelena Djuric, Co-Founder, Noble: https://x.com/jelena_noble Noble: https://x.com/noble_xyz
Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture.

Zach Dell is founder and CEO of Base Power, an energy tech company that builds affordable, reliable power via home batteries.

In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price-Wright sit down with Zach to discuss the current state of home power generation, what’s misunderstood about the data center buildout, and how to fix the US electricity grid. Plus, Erik and Katherine talk with a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin about Silicon Valley’s favorite Dark Enlightenment philosopher, Nick Land.

 

Resources:

Follow Katherine on X: https://x.com/KTmBoyle

Follow Eddy on X: https://x.com/eddylazzarin

Follow Zach on X: https://x.com/ZachBDell

Learn more about Base Power: https://www.basepowercompany.com/

Learn more about Nick Land: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/who-is-nick-land

 

Stay Updated: 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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The Kohaku project is kicking off Ethereum's "privacy by default" era.

The SAFE token is down 23% amid a widespread crypto selloff.

Genesis rewarded farmers over believers. Unicorn opens markets from Day 1 and ties founder unlocks to real traction.

The drop comes after President Trump announced new tariffs on China.

Is this the missing link between TradFi and DeFi?

The new stablecoin from the STBL protocol fell below its $1 peg shortly after going live, highlighting challenges for liquidity.

Ethereum’s new privacy initiative boosted Railgun’s RAIL token to an all-time high, following comments from Vitalik Buterin emphasizing privacy as a core focus.

The NFT fantasy sports platform is switching from L2 StarkEx to Solana, promising faster, cheaper, and more open ways to trade player cards.

Aurelion Treasury will become the first Nasdaq-listed corporate backed by Tether Gold (XAUT).

The creators of Cryptopunks and Autoglyphs just wrapped up Art Blocks’ curated series with a new release, Quine.

A coalition of major global banks is exploring the creation of a fully reserve-backed digital currency on public blockchains.

Kalshi's raise occurs as it overtakes Polymarket to become the top prediction market by volume.

Crypto markets hold out around $4.2 trillion as traders increasingly bet the U.S. government shutdown could last into next month.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 3rd, 2025 — Oct. 9th, 2025)

Never miss an important detail. This weekly recap provides key market insights and community updates from PIVX, all in one easy summary.

Market Pulse Masternode Count: The PIVX masternode network has kept its bullish run alive for two consecutive weeks. The number of active masternodes climbed to 2,071, up from the preceding week’s 2,008. This sustained growth signals a strong, bullish outlook for PIVX. Price Check: The price of PIV made a full recovery this week. Driven by renewed interest in privacy coins, including the launch of Grayscale’s Zcash Trust and growing retail attention, the Daily USD Value saw significant action. Daily prices fluctuated between $0.14 and $0.19. This translated into a strong weekly average of $0.15, a notable leap from last week’s $0.1246. Trading Buzz: PIVX trading volume saw an exponential surge this week. The weekly trading volume skyrocketed to a whopping $104 million, marking a massive pump that is more than three times last week’s $28.9 million. This level of volume has not been seen since December 2024, signaling major renewed market activity.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 3rd, 2025 — Oct. 9th, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The growth is being driven by rising liquidity on DeFi protocols like Suilend and Momentum.

Traders are flocking to the ZK-powered perpetuals trading platform amid the ongoing airdrop craze, and its OTC points market is going parabolic.

Since its March debut, the Brave Rewards 3.0 Partner Program has continued to gain momentum, expanding Basic Attention Token (BAT) utility across Web3. The program connects partners with Brave’s over 100 million monthly users through premium placements—including in-browser New Tab Takeovers and the new Rewards Offer Wall—and amplifies reach through social, in-app, and on-chain experiences.

This month’s update highlights new partners bringing BAT utility to mobile trading apps, decentralized exchanges, travel booking platforms, and on-chain games, pushing the program into new verticals and community spaces.

Meet September’s featured partners Fomo

Fomo is a mobile-based, social-first crypto platform for memecoins, altcoins, and stablecoins. Available on both iOS and Android, Fomo lets users track top traders, discover trending assets early, and compete with friends through an intuitive social interface. The app abstracts away private keys, gas fees, and blockchain complexity, and features a seamless one-click Apple Pay onramp for onboarding. Users can enjoy free trading throughout October on EVM chains, including Base.

As part of the Rewards 3.0 Partner Program, Fomo will integrate support for BAT swaps into its mobile trading app, and offer Brave Rewards users deposit bonuses and up to 10% off platform fees. A promo code will be available soon via the Rewards Offer Wall.

Jupiter

Jupiter is Solana’s leading DeFi super app, built to make decentralized trading fast, intuitive, and effective. Launched in 2021 as a DEX aggregator, Jupiter finds the best routes across Solana’s exchanges and liquidity sources to deliver optimal pricing with minimal slippage. Since its inception, the platform has facilitated trillions of dollars of trading volume. It has since evolved into a full-featured platform offering advanced tools, including limit orders, dollar-cost averaging (DCA), and perpetuals, making it a go-to hub for both casual and pro traders. Meanwhile, the Jupiter product suite has expanded to include a mobile wallet, a lending protocol, and its all-encompassing Portfolio app.

As part of the Partner Program, Jupiter will explore swap discounts for Brave Rewards users and BAT holders, helping to make trading and earning DeFi even more rewarding. Additionally, BAT is already supported on Jupiter, allowing users to buy, sell, and swap directly on the platform.

Orange Cap Games

Orange Cap Games (OCG) is a boundary-pushing design studio known for bringing beloved franchises to life through premium physical and digital game experiences. With a focus on product-led adoption and meticulous attention to detail, OCG crafts immersive trading card games and collectibles that resonate with both Web3 and mainstream audiences.

Their flagship title, Vibes, is a fast-growing trading card game (TCG) based on the Pudgy Penguins IP. Since launching in December, Vibes has sold over 4 million cards and built a passionate community of collectors and players. From the family-friendly world of Vibes to the charm of Moonbirds, Orange Cap creates iconic trading cards, collectible grails, and epic experiences.

As part of the Brave Rewards 3.0 Partner Program, OCG will release a limited-edition Brave collectible card, available in both physical and digital formats, playable in Vibes and purchasable with BAT.

TravelSwap

TravelSwap is an official Expedia crypto partner that lets users book hotels, resorts, and vacation rentals using either cryptocurrency or traditional payment methods. By streamlining crypto payments for flights and accommodations, TravelSwap makes it easier to plan trips with digital assets.

As a new Rewards 3.0 partner, TravelSwap will integrate BAT as a payment option on its platform and offer Brave Rewards users a 5% discount on hotel bookings. The discount will be accessible soon through an exclusive promo code in the Rewards Offer Wall.

Updates from existing program partners Bandit’s Badchain

Bandit’s Badchain recently launched a successful interactive quest via the Brave Rewards Offer Wall where users earned GUANO upon completion. As one of the first Offer Wall activations designed to drive on-chain engagement, the campaign saw over 650 participants and distributed more than 1.5 million GUANO in rewards.

By piloting experimental formats like this, Bandit is exploring new paths to market fit while furthering the Partner Program’s goal of rewarding Brave Rewards users through participation and play.

GolfN

The Brave x GolfN merch capsule officially lands in the GolfN Pro Shop on October 16, 2025, featuring exclusive Brave-branded golf towels, tees, and ball markers. Items can be purchased with BAT on Solana, other cryptocurrencies, or credit card (while supplies last).

To celebrate the launch, Brave Rewards users can also claim a promo code via the Rewards Offer Wall to unlock a Brave badge in the GolfN app. The badge earns points for in-app participation, and BAT holders who redeem it will receive a bonus point boost, redeemable for even more perks.

Your browser does not support the video tag. GuanoCoin

Since joining the Partner Program in March, GuanoCoin’s BAT Cave has grown to over 360,000 BAT locked—a 40% increase since July—reflecting growing community engagement and long-term confidence in the BAT ecosystem. Locking BAT reduces circulating supply, strengthens BAT’s utility on Solana, and rewards participants with GUANO.

GuanoCoin also established a BAT/SOL liquidity pool on Meteora with over 35,000 BAT and 24 SOL currently locked. Fees generated from the pool are being reinvested to deepen liquidity and expand BAT’s presence across Solana DeFi.

Most recently, GuanoCoin was verified on CoinGecko, boosting its visibility and paving the way for GUANO to appear as a recognized asset in the Brave Wallet.

Born from the BAT Community, GuanoCoin continues to pioneer creative, community-first ways to engage with BAT on-chain. Follow @GuanoCoin to stay up to date on new quests emerging from the Cave.

Unstoppable Domains

Adoption of the .brave on-chain domain continues to climb, with nearly 14,000 domains minted since launch in May. Each .brave domain serves as a decentralized identity asset, enabling human-readable wallet addresses, censorship-resistant websites on IPFS, and more.

Thanks to native support in the Brave browser and Brave Wallet (since version 1.81), .brave domains now resolve seamlessly without extensions, marking a major step toward making Web3 access more intuitive and user-friendly.

Fans can still claim their .brave domain using BAT, crypto, or credit card at get.unstoppabledomains.com/brave.

And stay tuned for an exciting announcement from Brave and Unstoppable domains the week of October 13, 2025!

Get involved with the program

Brave is a driving force leading the way for Web3 adoption, directly supporting Web3 into the broader Web through its privacy browser, independent search engine, and browser-native, multi-chain crypto wallet. Brave currently has over 100 million monthly active users. Learn more at brave.com and basicattentiontoken.org.

Web3 builders and projects can join the Rewards 3.0 Partner Program to gain access to a highly engaged, privacy-conscious user base, and help shape the next wave of utility for BAT. Stay tuned for more partner announcements and ways to engage with BAT. And get in touch to learn more.

How to spotlight your site or product in the Brave Rewards UI if you have a perk for Brave Rewards users

We’re building a lineup of perks—like coupons, discounts, or special bundles—for our Brave Rewards users. Whether it’s a free month or exclusive pricing, your offer could reach millions of users from the Brave Rewards offer wall. Let’s talk!

Catch up on previous posts in this series March April May June July

Five tokens catching our attention this month.

After a highly successful launch, the XPL token has fallen almost 50% from its opening week high.

BNB Smart Chain activity surges as token swaps dominate network usage.

Traders can now access equity, commodity, and FX futures alongside crypto contracts.

Crypto markets edged lower on Thursday as investors seemed to take a wait-and-see approach on macro updates.

The move will end Ocean Protocol's partnership with Fetch.ai and SingularityNET, and restore OCEAN independence.

Flaunch now supports token imports and Groups. Let's break down why these resources are compelling.

Binance Japan users will also receive direct access to PayPay Money deposits and withdrawals.

The creator-focused platform rallied sharply after a surprise listing on one of the top retail trading brokerage apps.

Monad confirmed a token airdrop claim portal will open on October 14, but provided no additional information.

The latest version of the top lending protocol creates a shared liquidity pool that customized markets can connect to.

了解我们最新的 Thrive x Horizen 资助的第4项目：LighterIM

它是多链、支持 ZK 的去中心化 OTC 协议使法定货币与加密货币的交换高效、安全且无需信任。

这就是我们资助修复点对点加密货币交易基础设施的原因

今天的 OTC 问题：

P2P 法定货币到加密货币的交易需要陌生人之间的信任，这会导致支付纠纷、诈骗和缓慢的手动验证。

因此，集中式平台控制您的资金和数据。

LighterIM通过 ZK 证明使场外交易变得无需信任。

LighterIM工作原理：
• Horizen ZKP 用于付款收据证明
• 通过加密验证，买家可以获得更顺畅、更高效的交易
• EIP712/Uniswap Permit2 用于卖方资产转移
• 提高卖家的资金效率和灵活性

这样，零知识证明就取代了信任！

专为真实用户打造，而不仅仅是加密原生用户。

关键基础设施组件：
• NFT ID 驱动的身份和行为追踪
• 全面的交易绩效评估体系
• 提供建议、提示和流程协助的人工智能工具
• 透明、高度自动化、值得信赖

为什么这填补了空白：
• 法币的上下坡道价格昂贵、缓慢且集中。
• P2P OTC 需要危险的信任级别。
• 当前的解决方案无法扩展或保护用户。

LighterIM通过加密保证提供去中心化的场外交易。

祝贺LighterIM构建了支持 ZK 的 OTC 基础设施，使法定加密货币交换变得无需信任且高效！

这就是您修复上/下坡道的方法。

这就是我们通过thriveprotocol为产生实际影响而提供资金的方式！

The post ZEN生态又增新成员：Horizen与Thrive资助的第4个项目LighterIM上线 appeared first on Horizen Blog.

BNB, Mantle, and Aster lead gains amid a renewed memecoin frenzy on BNB Smart Chain.

Europe's digital identity wallet excludes stablecoins and DeFi. A missed opportunity to bridge regulated infrastructure with open finance.

The new token will eventually replace $750 million worth of stablecoins in Jupiter’s liquidity pool.

The EF is expanding its commitment to privacy with a new Privacy Cluster that unites 47 leading researchers and engineers.

Solana-based Jupiter Exchange is seeking to embed JupUSD across its product offerings.

Part of the project’s long-planned post-FTX comeback, the token will have 20% of its circulating supply allocated to former Mercurial stakeholders.

Hyperliquid perps are live, MetaMask Rewards are imminent, and an exclusive Polymarket integration is coming soon.

DOOD, the token tied to the Doodles NFT collection, soared to a new high after Upbit listed the asset with KRW and USDT pairs.

BTC has pulled back from its recent all-time high, with most large-cap tokens also trading lower today.

The deal brings liquid staking products and compliance infrastructure to Plume’s real-world asset blockchain.

It’s almost impossible to talk about privacy coins without mentioning the likes of Monero. You have to hand it to them; they’ve been around since 2014. However, there are many other projects (some arguably better) in the privacy niche. PIVX is one of the OGs that is often overlooked.

In this article, I’ll scrutinize both privacy cryptocurrencies, exploring their core technology, as well as their pros and cons.

Core Technology: Privacy by Default vs. Optional Shielding

The most crucial difference between PIVX and Monero lies in their implementation and philosophy of privacy.

Monero

Monero’s privacy is mandatory and built in for every single transaction, ensuring a uniform anonymity set. This commitment to default privacy is, in my opinion, Monero’s greatest strength. It uses three distinct technologies to ensure user privacy — Ring signatures, Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT), and stealth addresses.

While ring signatures blend the sender’s signature with a group of non-spenders on the blockchain, making it cryptographically impossible to trace the actual spender, a stealth address allows the sender to create a one-time, unique public address for every transaction. RingCT hides the transaction amount, preserving confidentiality even from view-key holders.

PIVX

PIVX, on the other hand, combines optional privacy with an energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus and a self-governance model. Its current privacy technology is known as SHIELD, a highly customized and successful implementation of the zk-SNARKs.

Short for Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge, zk-SNARKs allow a user to prove that a statement is true without revealing any information about the underlying data.

When enabled, transactions sent from one shielded address to another shielded address (SHIELD-to-SHIELD transactions) have the sender’s address, the receiver’s address, and the transaction amount completely hidden on the public blockchain.

Privacy vs. Practicality Consensus Mechanism: Monero utilizes Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus. While this is highly secure and ASIC-resistant, it comes with high energy requirements. PIVX touts itself as the first PoS network to implement privacy features. As we all know, PoS offers lower energy consumption, faster block times, and rewards for staking. Compliance: Monero is difficult to audit, which is why it has faced severe regulatory scrutiny and delistings from major exchanges. PIVX, with its optional privacy option, allows users to transact transparently if needed for compliance. However, its optional nature may still raise regulatory flags. Transaction Fees: Like Bitcoin, fees on the Monero network can be higher and less predictable due to congestion and the large size of the private transaction data. Meanwhile, fees on the PIVX blockchain are near zero and more predictable, enabled by the PoS structure. Conclusion

Monero is the choice for the purist. It is a fundamental, uncompromised digital cash system where privacy is a guarantee, not an option. Its strength is in its mandatory nature, which creates the largest possible anonymity set. But the cost of this is high energy consumption and increasing regulatory pressure that limits its accessibility.

PIVX, on the other hand, represents a more modern, pragmatic approach. By embracing Proof-of-Stake, it offers a fast, energy-efficient, and self-governed network. Its optional privacy (SHIELD) provides users with a choice, catering to both the privacy-minded and those who may need transparent transactions for compliance. However, this optionality is the very thing that, in the eyes of Monero enthusiasts, makes its privacy less robust.

Ultimately, both projects are essential to the privacy coin ecosystem. Monero defines the gold standard for confidentiality, while PIVX pushes the boundary of what’s possible in an efficient, self-governing chain.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

The PIVX-Monero Debate was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Sam Altman has led OpenAI from its founding as a research nonprofit in 2015 to becoming the most valuable startup in the world ten years later.

In this episode, a16z Cofounder Ben Horowitz and General Partner Erik Torenberg sit down with Sam to discuss the core thesis behind OpenAI’s disparate bets, why they released Sora, how they use models internally, the best AI evals, and where we’re going from here.

 

Resources:

Follow Sam on X: https://x.com/sama

Follow OpenAI on X: https://x.com/openai

Learn more about OpenAI: https://openai.com/

Try Sora: https://sora.com/

Follow Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz

 

Stay Updated: 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg

 

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

PunkStrategy sparked a meta, and now remixes are pushing out in new directions.

Solana's MetaDAO proves futarchy can give token holders and traders real power and accountability.

The partnership makes Intercontinental Exchange a global distributor of Polymarket data.

Galaxy Digital predicts that tokenized assets could grow by more than 5,600% in five years, driven by strong institutional interest.

Bitcoin life insurer Meanwhile has raised $82M in a round led by Bain Capital Crypto and Haun Ventures.

The S&P Digital Markets 50 will blend 15 leading cryptocurrencies and 35 blockchain-linked stocks into a single benchmark.

The index will track both digital assets and publicly traded crypto-linked companies.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a landmark $2B investment in prediction market Polymarket.

The Layer 2 network saw its MNT token reach a fresh high after the Mantle team launched a new app that lets users manage crypto and fiat.

BTC keeps pushing higher, reaching a new record above $126,000 yesterday afternoon.

Opendoor is trying to make it easier to buy a home. Kaz Nejatian just joined as CEO to help them succeed.

In this episode, a16z General Partners Alex Rampell and Erik Torenberg sit down with Kaz to cover all things real estate and marketplaces. They cover Kaz’s vision for Opendoor, the problem with copying the hedge fund model, how to build through economic downturns, and the importance of ambition and long-term thinking.

 

Resources:

Follow Kaz on X: https://x.com/CanadaKaz

Follow Alex on X: https://x.com/arampell

 

Stay Updated: 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Resources:

Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Grayscale’s new staking feature lets investors earn rewards on Ethereum and Solana through traditional brokerage accounts.

A primer on Ethereum-aligned perp DEXs that are balancing speed with L1 security.

Morgan Stanley's global wealth group publishes cryptocurrency allocation guidelines.

Over $300 billion of stablecoins now exist on blockchains as cheaper issuance and regulatory clarity fuel the sector’s growth.

GalaxyOne enables retail investors to earn interest on cash and trade cryptocurrencies and stocks.

Grayscale now offers staking rewards to holders of its ETHE and ETH ETFs.

Consensys will align core product offerings through a unified token roadmap.

BTC hit a new all-time high of $125,500 on Sunday despite the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.

Over the past several months, we’ve made significant changes to Zebra’s continuous integration and testing infrastructure. For those new to the project, Zebra is the Zcash Foundation’s full-node implementation written in Rust, providing an independent, memory-safe, and consensus-compatible alternative to zcashd.

These improvements make it easier for anyone to fork the repository, test their changes, and contribute to the project—without relying on external services or special permissions.

Why These Changes Matter

Previously, contributing to Zebra meant dealing with several roadblocks:

Forked repositories couldn’t run most CI tests because they depended on Firebase, external Docker registries, and other services that contributors didn’t have access to Test builds were slow and sometimes rebuilt unnecessarily Complex configuration made it hard to understand which tests were running and why External dependencies added costs and made the CI fragile

We’ve systematically addressed each of these issues.

What We’ve Improved

We have made five notable improvements:

1. CI Now Works on Forks

The biggest change: if you fork Zebra, the CI just works. We removed all dependencies on external services that required special access:

Documentation now deploys to GitHub Pages instead of Firebase All workflows run on standard GitHub infrastructure Docker images build directly in GitHub Actions, no longer requiring Google Cloud Platform or Docker Build Cloud Removed 19 patch files and 2,900 lines of configuration complexity

We also made Zebra’s internal workflows easier to identify by adding a zfnd- prefix, so it’s clear which workflows are specific to the Zcash Foundation’s infrastructure and which ones will work in your fork.

See our CI/CD architecture documentation →

2. Faster, More Reliable Tests with Nextest

We migrated Zebra’s entire test suite to use cargo-nextest, a modern test runner that offers several advantages:

Faster execution: Tests run in parallel with smarter scheduling Better reliability: Proper timeout handling prevents false failures Clearer configuration: All 17 test profiles are defined in .config/nextest.toml instead of scattered across shell scripts Simpler workflows: One NEXTEST_PROFILE variable replaces dozens of environment flags

This change eliminated unnecessary rebuilds caused by feature flag mismatches and streamlined how we run different types of tests (full sync, RPC tests, lightwalletd integration, etc.).

See our nextest profiles and test categories →

3. Removed External Build Dependencies

We used to rely on external services to build Docker images because the builds were resource-intensive. This created two problems:

Contributors couldn’t build images in their forks It incurred in significant costs

Now, Docker images build entirely within GitHub Actions using standard infrastructure. We made the builder configurable, so if you fork Zebra, your images will build automatically without any special setup.

The workflow also adapts to your environment—it uses standard GitHub runners in forks and larger runners in the main repository, so contributors aren’t blocked by runner size limitations.

Learn more about our Docker setup →

4. Streamlined Testing and Deployment

We simplified how tests are organized and run:

Single unified workflow: Instead of building Docker images multiple times across different workflows, we build once and reuse it for all tests. Consistent naming: Standardized test names across GitHub workflows, environment variables, and Rust code makes it easier to trace failures and understand what’s being tested. Simplified GCP integration: For tests that do run on Google Cloud Platform (in the main repository), we removed the intermediate container layer and use direct instance creation, which improves reliability and logging.

See our workflow organization →5. Better Configuration Management

We replaced the legacy configuration system with a modern layered approach:

Configure Zebra using ZEBRA_ prefixed environment variables without needing a generated config file Simplified Docker entrypoint that doesn’t need to generate TOML files Clearer separation between defaults, optional TOML files, and environment overrides

This makes it easier to test different configurations and reduces the complexity of the Docker entrypoint script.

See the configuration documentation →

What This Means for You

Whether you’re a contributor, a community member running your own Zebra node, or an organization building on top of Zebra:

Fork and test freely: You can fork Zebra and run the full CI suite in your own repository Faster feedback: Tests run faster and more reliably, so you get quicker feedback on changes Easier debugging: Clearer test names and better logging make it simpler to understand what went wrong when a test fails Lower barriers to entry: New contributors don’t need to understand complex external dependencies or request access to special services
What’s Next

We’re not done yet. The improvements we’ve made so far lay the groundwork for even more significant changes coming soon:

Smarter Test Selection

We’re re-architecting how tests are organized and run so you can choose exactly what to test based on your needs:

Run by test type: Select just unit tests, integration tests, or stateful tests (tests that require a cached blockchain state) Run by quality level: Choose between quick smoke tests and comprehensive test suites Run what matters: If you’re working on RPC functionality, run just the RPC tests. Working on sync logic? Run only sync-related tests.

This will make the development cycle faster—you won’t need to wait for the entire test suite when you’re only changing a specific component.

Regtest for Faster, More Reliable Testing

We’re considering a shift to using regtest (regression test mode—a local testing environment where blocks can be generated on demand) instead of relying on mainnet or testnet for complex integration tests:

No sync wait times: Tests won’t need to wait for long mainnet syncs to complete before running Predictable test environments: Create custom blockchain states on demand rather than depending on network state Faster iteration: Run complex network interactions without the overhead of full blockchain synchronization

This change would make our stateful tests significantly faster and more reliable, especially for testing complex interactions between Zebra and the network.

Workflow Modernization

We’re continuing to refactor our remaining specialized workflows, simplifying our infra-related deployment workflows

These changes will follow the same principles: reduce complexity, remove external dependencies where possible, and make everything work seamlessly in forks.

Continuous Improvement

The work we’ve completed over the past few months demonstrates our commitment to making Zebra easier to work with. We’ll continue to identify bottlenecks, simplify workflows, and improve the contributor experience.

Get Started!

All of these improvements are already live in the main branch. If you’ve been thinking about contributing to Zebra, or if you previously had trouble running tests in your fork, now is a great time to give it another try.

To get started:

Visit the Zebra Book for documentation Check out the GitHub repository to explore the code Join our Discord channel if you have questions or want to connect with the team

 

 

Questions or feedback? We’d love to hear about your experience with the new CI setup. Let us know in Discord or open an issue in the Zebra repository.

The Zcash Foundation is committed to transparency and openness with the Zcash community. We’ll continue sharing updates on our engineering work and welcome your feedback and contributions.

The post Making Zebra More Accessible: Major CI/CD Improvements for Contributors appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

Finally, the surveillance network that tracks your every drive is ready to listen to your existential crises. What could possibly go wrong when we equip a company with a legally questionable technology with auditory access to our streets?

Flock Safety has introduced a system called Raven. The automated license plate reader (ALPR) company, whose network of cameras operates in over 6,000 communities nationwide, is marketing the product under the slogan, “Safety you can see and now hear.” But here’s the thing, Raven has a “Distress Detection” feature capable of detecting sounds of human distress, such as screaming.

A “Drag-Net” for Sounds

Digital rights groups have sounded the alarm over the integration of sophisticated audio surveillance into Flock’s already contentious camera network. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) issued a blog post stating that “high-powered microphones parked above densely-populated city streets” pose an imminent threat to civil liberties. The EFF called on cities to cancel existing Flock contracts before the new feature can inflict “civil liberties harms to residents and headaches for cities.”

The concerns compound the existing controversy surrounding Flock’s technology. The company’s surveillance systems are already under fire for allegations of police misuse, including instances where law enforcement accessed Flock databases from other agencies across the country in searches targeting abortion patients and undocumented immigrants.

If the company’s current visual dragnet is being weaponized for searches far outside of violent crime, imagine the privacy violations possible with recorded human voices.

Legal Challenges

Flock’s pervasive surveillance systems are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit against the city of Norfolk, Virginia. In that case, a court filing revealed that a plaintiff’s location was recorded by 176 different Flock cameras 526 times over a three-and-a-half-month period.

A judge in the case has signalled a potential ruling against the company, asserting that such extensive, secretive monitoring violates society’s objective expectations of privacy and constitutes an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.

Furthermore, the gunshot detection technology itself, which Raven incorporates, has a documented history of technical failure and misuse. Audits of similar systems in other cities have consistently shown them to suffer from high rates of false reporting, often confusing other loud sounds for gunfire. Critics argue this unreliability often leads to the disproportionate concentration of police surveillance in majority-minority neighbourhoods.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

License Plate Reader Giant Flock Now Listening to Human Voices was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From high-speed rail to electric cars to batteries to AI, it’s clear that China can operate with incredible speed at massive scale. Can the US still compete?

We sat down with Dan Wang, a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” to discuss.

 

Timecodes: 

0:00  Introduction

1:36   Lawyers vs. Engineers: Cultural and Economic Differences

4:06  Urban and Rural Life: Comparing Infrastructure

7:20  Barriers to Progress: Regulation and Governance

11:00  Industrial Policy and Public-Private Partnerships

14:20  The Double-Edged Sword of Legal and Engineering Mindsets

16:50  Social Engineering and Policy in China

23:00  Competition, Intellectual Property, and Business Culture

27:10  Manufacturing, Scale, and Global Supply Chains

36:00  Lessons from Japan and Korea

41:30  Complacency, Quality, and the Future of Competition

48:45  Strategic Resources and Industrial Policy

54:00  Foreign Policy: Engineering Diplomacy vs. Alliances

59:00  Taiwan, Demographics, and the Future of US-China Relations

 

Resources:

Follow Dan on X: https://x.com/danwwang

Read Dan’s blog: https://danwang.co/

Buy Breakneck on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324106034/

Follow Steven on X: 

https://x.com/stevesi

Stay Updated:

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Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg

 

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Two trends in media have been abundantly clear since 2020: legacy media is dying, and independent media is rising.

a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle sit down with Tablet founder and editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse to discuss the great media realignment, why real institutions will outlast the new “internet pirates", Alana’s deeply personal case for gene editing, and how faith, science, and community can coexist without giving in to government referees.

 

Resources:

Read Tablet magazine: https://www.tabletmag.com/
Follow Alana on X: https://x.com/alananewhouse

Follow Tablet on X: https://x.com/tabletmag

Follow Katherine on X: https://x.com/KTmBoyle

 

Stay Updated: 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Our chart of the week is Zcash (ZEC).

Trends to Watch (Return to tradition)

David Hoffman: Prices surface truth. Power suppresses it. The case for censorship-resistant truth markets.

The partnership aims to enhance the newly launched Layer 1’s stablecoin infrastructure and promote DeFi adoption.

USDai's AI infrastructure financing provides competitive yield opportunities along with an airdrop hunt

Starknet’s BTCFi rollout combines staking, incentives, and institutional support. It's an execution-first strategy toward Bitcoin–Ethereum dual settlement.

Following its acquisition by Orange Cap Games, Moonbirds is about to launch its BIRB token, with the collection’s total trading volume climbing over 1,000% in 90 days.

Crypto markets rallied for a third day as investors digested macro uncertainty and Middle East tensions.

September marked the first time perpetual DEX trading volumes exceeded $1 trillion in a single month, with the first three days of October already surpassing March’s total volume.

BTC was just half a percentage point away from new all-time highs on Friday morning.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is now the world’s largest venue for bitcoin options.

U.S. Galaxy users will receive limited-time, promotional access to Coinbase One.

Software has fundamentally changed the way we record, store, and share information. Its next act is to fundamentally change the nature of our economy, capturing trillions of dollars of value in the process.

In this talk from the 2025 a16z LP Summit, a16z General Partner Alex Rampell discusses the history of filing cabinets and databases, how SaaS pricing moved from seats to outcomes, and how AI agents will accelerate the trend of the last 70 years of software progress.

 

Timecodes: 

0:00 Introduction

0:58 The Scale of the Labor Market vs. SaaS  

1:41 Capital, Labor, and Automation: A Historical Perspective  

3:32 The Filing Cabinet Metaphor: Digitizing Work  

3:50 Case Studies: From Airlines to Accounting  

8:42 The Limits of Efficiency: Humans Still in the Loop  

9:02 Rethinking SaaS Pricing Models  

10:21 The Impact of AI on Labor and Software  

11:41 Outcome-Based Software: Moving Beyond the Filing Cabinet  

17:41 Real-World Examples: AI in Action  

22:05 The Expanding Market: New Opportunities with AI  

25:44 Conclusion and Takeaways  

25:48 Podcast Outro and Disclaimers 

Resources: 

Follow Alex on X: https://x.com/arampell

 

Stay Updated: 

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Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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In this episode, Sebastien Couture is joined by Benjamin, the founder of CAP, a stablecoin protocol designed to provide insured yield. The protocol features two main products: CUSD, a digital dollar, and stCUSD, its staked, yield-bearing version. Yield is generated through an "allocation engine" where third-party operators borrow from the protocol's reserve to execute yield strategies. To ensure user deposits, these operators must be vouched for by restakers on protocols like Symbiotic. If an operator defaults, the restakers who vouched for them are slashed, protecting the stablecoin holders' funds. This model shifts risk from the end-user to the restakers, who have a bilateral relationship with the operators they underwrite, often backed by legal agreements.

Topics covered in this episode:

Benjamin's background and perspective on China Journey into crypto and stablecoins Hot Take: Stablecoins are not as safe as you think The evolution of stablecoin models Has DeFi forgotten about decentralization? CAP's design: CUSD and stCUSD How CAP generates yield with operators and restakers The role of restakers and legal agreements Integrating with Symbiotic and views on EigenLayer The best use cases for shared security Navigating the Genius Act and global regulations Rebuilding trust in the DeFi ecosystem Why the stablecoin space is not too crowded

Episode links:

Benjamin on X Cap Money

Sponsors:

Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/618

The deal includes $460 million in assets and a discounted purchase of AVAX tokens from the Avalanche Foundation.

The hottest perp DEXes to farm for future tokens this month.

The O’Ruggin Trail is a fully onchain text adventure that turns game saves into tradable NFTs.

Perpetual DEXs crossed a major milestone in September, recording over $1T in monthly trading volume for the first time ever.

DoubleZero has launched its mainnet-beta, offering a high-performance alternative to the public internet for blockchains and distributed systems.

CME Group will make cryptocurrency futures and options available for 24/7 trading beginning in early 2026, pending regulatory approval.

Ben, Marc, and Erik Torenberg are joined by Brian Schimpf, Co-Founder & CEO of Anduril, and Chris Power, Founder & CEO of Hadrian. Together, they dig into America’s defense production gap: why the U.S. can out-innovate but not out-produce—and what it will take to turn that around.

They discuss why U.S. war games show we run out of munitions in a week, the myth of “exquisite-only” systems, how to rebuild industrial capacity with software-led automation, financing factories like data centers, and what it takes to create real deterrence in a Taiwan scenario.

 

Timecodes: 

0:00 Introduction

0:27 Technical Superiority vs. Industrial Scale  

3:59 The Decline of US Manufacturing  

7:23 Challenges in Onshoring & Skilled Labor  

13:27 Supply Chains & Rare Earths  

15:34 Automation, Software, and Catching Up  

17:15 Complexity of Modern Production  

23:34 Strategic Policy & Industrial Planning  

26:37 Regulatory Barriers & State vs. Federal Roles  

35:27 Talent, Data Centers, and Financial Engineering  

38:33 China’s Industrial Policy & US Response  

46:07 US Manufacturing, National Security, and the China Challenge  

52:00 Demographics, Long-Term Outlook, and Closing Thoughts  

 

Resources: 

Find Chris on X: https://x.com/chris_power

Find Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bschimpf/

Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca

Marc’s Substack: https://pmarca.substack.com/

Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz

 

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The views expressed here are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any a16z funds. PLEASE SEE MORE HERE: https://a16z.com/disclosures/

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Today, Aerska announced a $21M seed round to develop RNA interference (RNAi) therapies with a novel delivery platform designed to cross the blood–brain barrier — one of the biggest bottlenecks in treating neurological disease. We’re proud to back the team, alongside Backed VC, Age1, Lingotto, Kerna Ventures, Norrsken, and Speedinvest.

Using natural transport receptors on endothelial cells, Aerska’s platform delivers advanced medicines directly to the brain. This enables precise silencing of disease-causing genes while reducing side effects — a breakthrough for conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, which are rising by 30% every decade. By 2040, the cost of care is projected to exceed $1.1 trillion annually, outpacing almost every other disease.

Our Thesis

Drawing on co-founder Jack O’Meara’s extensive experience with RNAi at his prior startup, Ochre Bio, we believe Aerska has the potential to fast-track breakthrough therapies for several defining neurological conditions of our generation, starting with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

If Aerska’s RNAi delivery platform for medicines to the brain is successful in these categories, we believe that it could become the fabric for how all neurological diseases are treated in the future.

We’re excited to be backing Jack and the entire Aerska team on their mission. Read more about Aerska’s $21M seed round in this Endpoints article.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article has been prepared solely for informational purposes and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any entity managed by BlueYard Capital (“BlueYard”). Any reference to a specific company or security does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or directly invest in the company or its securities. It may not be modified, reproduced, or redistributed in whole or in part without the prior written consent of BlueYard. Portfolio company information presented herein is for informational purposes only and not intended to be a guarantee of certain investment results. BlueYard does not represent that the information herein is accurate, true, or complete, makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding the information herein and shall not be liable for any losses, damages, costs, or expenses relating to its adequacy, accuracy, truth, completeness, or use. All other company, product and service names or service marks of others and their use does not imply their endorsement of, or an association with this program.

Brave’s 100M monthly users can now manage Cardano assets, swap tokens, participate in on-chain governance—and more easily take part in Midnight’s Glacier Drop claim and future NIGHT redemption—directly in Brave’s built-in wallet

SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON, 2nd October 2025: Input | Output (IO), the preeminent Web3 blockchain infrastructure and engineering firm, and Brave Software, creators of the privacy-first browser and integrated multi-chain Brave Wallet, today announced the successful completion of their Cardano integration. Users can hold and manage ADA and Cardano native assets in their Brave Wallet, send and receive transactions, execute token swaps, and participate in Cardano governance—all natively in the browser, with no extensions required. This end-to-end experience is available on desktop with simple access via Brave’s wallet icon .

“This completed integration advances Brave Wallet’s mission to be the most secure way to access Web3,” said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave and the Basic Attention Token (BAT). “Cardano support broadens multi-chain choice while improving the everyday experience without extensions or extra steps. We’re pleased to help unlock a smoother path to privacy-centric applications for our community.”

Completion of the integration also makes it significantly easier for eligible users to engage with the Midnight network, the privacy-enhancing blockchain project developed with support from IO, and participate in Midnight’s Glacier Drop, its multi-chain, phased token distribution and community onboarding programme - and to redeem NIGHT, Midnight’s native utility token.

In the claim phase, participants must prove control of an eligible wallet and provide a new Cardano destination address for the NIGHT distribution and subsequent redemption schedule. With native Cardano support live in Brave Wallet, users can create and manage that address in seconds, then receive and handle NIGHT like any other Cardano native asset—all within a single, secure, browser-based wallet environment.

Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IO, said: “Bringing Cardano natively into Brave Wallet is a win for usability, governance, and growth. It gives millions of privacy-minded users a simple way to hold ADA, use Cardano native assets, and participate in on-chain decision-making. Just as importantly, it lowers friction for Midnight’s Glacier Drop by making Cardano address creation and NIGHT redemption straightforward for newcomers and veterans alike.”

About Input | Output (IO)

Input | Output (IO) is a world-leading blockchain infrastructure and research engineering firm dedicated to building a sustainable Web3 ecosystem. IO is committed to advancing the next generation of blockchain innovation, focusing on scalability, security, and real-world adoption through pioneering research and cutting-edge engineering.

About Brave Wallet and Brave

Brave Wallet is the secure, multi-chain crypto wallet built directly into the Brave privacy browser—no extensions required. With Brave Wallet, users can manage tokens and NFTs; connect to DApps and onramp to Web3; and explore decentralized finance, social media, gaming, and more. Brave Wallet users can connect other “cold” wallets like Ledger & Trezor. They can buy, store, send, and connect to DApps on Solana, Ethereum and EVM chains, Zcash, and Filecoin.

Brave Wallet is available on desktop, Android, and iOS, and is free to use. To get started on desktop, Brave browser users can click the wallet icon near the address bar. On mobile, users can tap “⋮” (Android) or “…” (iOS), then tap the wallet icon .

Brave is a driving force leading the way for Web3 adoption, directly supporting Web3 into the broader Web through its privacy browser, independent search engine, and browser-native, multi-chain crypto wallet. Brave currently has 100 million monthly active users. Learn more at brave.com.

With wallets teasing tokens, examining their economics shows us many are not to be ignored.

Igor Barinov will coordinate "Privacy @ EF" and Andy Guzman will take over leadership of the PSE team.

Zcash (ZEC) has surged 77% in the past three days to $97.29 as investors revisit privacy as a core crypto narrative.

Alt coins are leading the rally, with notable tickers like ETH and SOL up more than 4% on the day.

Ready to easily swap crypto for Zcash (ZEC) without centralized exchanges? Zashi 2.4 is here, bringing decentralized swaps powered by Near Intents. Convert assets like USDC, Bitcoin, or Solana into […]

Source

Today we’re sharing a feed drop from Cheeky Pint, where Stripe cofounder and president John Collison chats with legends in technology over a pint of Guinness.

In this episode, John is joined by a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen and tech investor Charlie Songhurst for a candid conversation about bubbles, downturns, and the psychology of markets. They discuss what makes Silicon Valley so hard to replace, the deep history of the Valley’s ecosystem, and the future of media. From the lessons of the dot-com crash to the future of venture capital and startups, this is an inside look at how big cycles shape innovation and what it takes to build on the frontier.

 

Timecodes: 

0:00 Introduction 

1:56 Marc Andreessen’s early internet stories

3:10 Silicon Valley, risk, and downturns

8:30 Marc Andreessen’s early internet days

11:52 Investing across cycles

16:30 Can you tell when you’re in a bubble?

19:10 Trust, high-status VCs & preferential attachment

27:00 Venture capital, startups, and investment cycles

33:34  East Coast vs. West Coast: risk and culture

44:00 High trust culture in Silicon Valley

50:00 Why Silicon Valley, not Boston or Europe?

55:00  Company tragedies and missed opportunities

1:00:00 The internet boom, bubbles, and AI parallels

1:15:00 AI’s impact: productivity, jobs, and society

1:35:00 Crypto, stablecoins, and fintech

1:50:00 Public vs. private markets & venture strategy

2:00:00 Big companies, competition, and bureaucracy

2:05:00 Boards, governance, and the Elon Musk method

 

Resources: 

Watch more episodes from Cheeky Pint: https://www.youtube.com/@stripe

Listen to Cheeky Pint on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cheeky-pint/id1821055332

Find John on X: https://x.com/collision

Find Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlessonghurst/

Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca

Marc’s Substack: https://pmarca.substack.com/ 

 

Stay Updated: 

Find us on X: https://x.com/a16z

Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

This information is for general educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell any investment or financial product. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described in this podcast are not representative of all a16z investments and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by a16z is available at https://a16z.com/investment-list/. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of capital.  Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance. Before making decisions with legal, tax, or accounting effects, you should consult appropriate professionals. Information is from sources deemed reliable on the date of publication, but a16z does not guarantee its accuracy.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Brave Search also now at 20 billion annualized queries

As of September 30th, the Brave browser has surpassed 100 million monthly active users (MAU) worldwide across desktop and mobile, officially reaching 101 million users.

We’d like to take a moment to celebrate this achievement, and tease what’s next. We’d also like to thank the 100 million (and counting!) people—whoever they are—who’ve joined Brave’s mission of building a privacy-by-default, user-first Web. We’re grateful for the support of all our users and particularly our vibrant Brave and BAT communities, whose passion and advocacy continue to drive us forward.

“100 million users represent more than a growth milestone—they constitute a movement for a better Web that puts users first. Across the globe, users are choosing privacy and control over their online experience, instead of Big Tech’s tracking and abuse,”

said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave.

“Every product we’ve launched since our browser—our search engine, our premium products, our ad platform—has been built with privacy protections. As we expand our AI offerings, we will continue to design for privacy-by-default, which will fuel our next wave of growth.”

Brave Browser growth

Over the past two years, the Brave browser has seen an average of about 2.5 million net new users each month. This September, we officially surpassed 100 million monthly active users (MAU) worldwide. At the same time, we surpassed 42 million daily active users (DAU), for a DAU-to-MAU ratio of 0.42, underlining the high engagement that users have with Brave.

This growth has been fueled by a global awareness that Brave is an alternative to Big Tech and that users benefit greatly from a browser that preserves their privacy and is up to 3 times faster than competitors. Also, when users are given a choice, users exercise that choice and switch to new browsers. For example, daily installs for Brave on iOS in the EU went up 50% with the new browser choice panel, following the implementation of the DMA and release of iOS 17.4 in 2024.

The growth of Brave Search

Brave Search is powered by its own, independent index of the Web. This makes it one of only three truly independent search engines in the western world, and the only one outside Big Tech.

Brave Search is also growing fast, with more than 1.6 billion queries each month, or nearly 20 billion queries per year. On average, Brave Search serves high-quality, independent, private answers for more than 50 million user queries every single day.

Brave Search also serves over 15 million AI-generated search answers daily, as millions of our users seek the convenience of AI integrated into a search engine. Brave also just announced Ask Brave, a new AI chat experience native to Brave Search that consolidates search and AI chat.

And while Brave Search is the default search engine for most Brave users, we’re also seeing increasing usage (about 8% of total daily queries) from other browsers (most notably Chrome).

Brave as a privacy ecosystem

We realized early on that people can only stay as private as the tools they use to get online. That’s why we sought to empower the browser as a single privacy super app. That means browsing that blocks ads and trackers by default, but also private search, and a suite of other tools as privacy alternatives to Big Tech offerings. By building these tools directly into the browser, we can remove the need for extensions.

Brave Shields provide protection on every webpage you visit. By default, Shields block ads and third-party trackers, cross-site cookies, fingerprinting, and more. Shields can be easily configured to your preferences. And, best of all, these protections are provided without the need to download extensions or other apps.

In addition to Brave Shields, the Brave browser has many advanced security and privacy protections built in. These include reduced network server calls, storage partitioning, Global Privacy Control (GPC) enablement, bounce tracking prevention, and many more.

Finally, we knew that for users to protect their privacy online, we needed to offer usable, private-by-default alternatives. Brave Search never profiles its users. Brave Leo, the integrated AI assistant in the browser, doesn’t retain or share chats, or use them for model training. Brave VPN allows people to mask their location and hide their IP address, even on apps outside the Brave browser. Brave Wallet supports private and transparent shielded Zcash transactions. This kind of privacy-first approach applies to every product and feature we build.

Brave and AI

Brave Leo transforms how you use the Web, offering all the power of tools like ChatGPT without the privacy compromises or vendor lock-in. Choose from leading AI models including Claude, DeepSeek, Llama and Qwen, or connect your own local or remote models for better control over your AI experience, and total privacy. As your built-in browser companion, Leo understands your context across multiple browser tabs, PDFs, images, videos and documents, plus accesses real-time information to help you research, analyze, and create without constantly switching between apps. Best of all, Leo does not require an account or profile, and your conversation history is stored on your device. Leo doesn’t retain or share chats, or use them for model training.

The Brave Search “AI Answers” and “Ask” features allow people to ask questions and receive high-quality, current answers right in the search experience. Users can find AI-powered answers at the top of the results page, or even in a full-screen, follow-up chat.

Brave is also planning for the next phase of AI, with Leo’s new agentic experience. Like other AI agents, Leo agentic will be able to take actions on your behalf—drafting messages, responding, handling payments and bookings, and more. But, uniquely, Brave’s agentic experience will be siloed in a specialized browser profile, ensuring the agent has no access to other tabs that may contain sensitive information. It will also ensure you have ultimate say over the actions the agent can take and guard against unwanted actions.

Brave as a business

While Brave has seen incredible adoption among end users around the world, Brave has also grown as a sustainable business.

Brave Ads

Brave’s first-of-its-kind, privacy-respecting digital ads ecosystem is now working with some of the biggest brands in the world. Brave ads allow brands to reach incremental audiences that aren’t reachable in other channels. They provide unique ad units that appear directly in the browser interface or search engine results page, and provide safety for both brands (premium placement without unwanted collisions) and users (Brave Ads respect user privacy). To date, Brave Ads have been used by some of the biggest brands in the world, including Amazon, Ford, Intuit, eBay, Wayfair, and more.

→ Learn more about Brave Ads, or get started with your first campaign.

Brave Search API

Brave Search is powered by its own, independent index of the Web. This makes it one of only three independent indexes in the western world, and the only one outside of Big Tech. And unlike Alphabet’s Google or Microsoft’s Bing, or supposedly independent providers like DuckDuckGo (which relies on Bing for its results), Brave doesn’t bias or censor results, or manipulate its search algorithm.

This index is now available to power other search or AI applications, via the Brave Search API. The Brave Search API can power agentic search, chatbots, coding assistants, and AI search engines. It provides real-time data to reduce hallucinations, and excels in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines. Best of all, the Brave Search API is available at no cost for up to 2k queries per month (QPM), and with affordable, transparent paid options starting as low as $5 CPM. The Brave Search API is currently the single source of real-time data for some of the biggest AI LLMs.

Brave Premium

While all of Brave’s end-user features are available for free, some may want a more premium experience. To this end, Brave offers affordable, enhanced versions of several of our free features, which we collectively call Brave Premium.

Brave Leo premium offers higher rate limits and access to more models. Brave Talk, our free videoconferencing tool, also has a premium version that brings better moderator controls, call records, and more. And Brave Search premium offers users an ad-free experience.

Our most widely-used premium feature—Brave VPN—now serves nearly 100,000 subscribers. One Brave VPN subscription protects up to 10 devices across desktop, iOS, and Android. With a slew of features meant to enhance both privacy and streaming performance, Brave VPN ensures safe access to the content you want, no matter where you are in the world.

Brave Wallet, Rewards, and BAT

Brave also offers great Web3 tools built right into the browser. Brave Wallet is a secure, multi-chain wallet where users can manage tokens, NFTs, and currencies, without the risk of third-party extensions. Brave Rewards is a completely opt-in experience that allows users to choose how (and how often) they see privacy-preserving Brave Ads in the browser. If they choose to opt in and connect a wallet, users can then earn a cut of any ad revenue, in the form of the Basic Attention Token (or BAT). Brave Rewards also gives users an easy way to support the millions of websites and content creators registered with Brave Creators. With over 99% of its 1.5 billion supply in circulation, BAT is ranked as the 14th most distributed token by on-chain holders on Ethereum. This made Brave the first crypto application with more than 1 million users.

Many of the leading names in crypto and Web3 advertise with Brave Ads, integrate with Brave Wallet, or join the Rewards Partner Program.

A note on how Brave tallies user growth and other metrics

As a privacy company, we pride ourselves on adhering to a stronger variation of Google’s old (and since abandoned) mantra. When we say “Can’t be evil,” we mean we don’t have access to personal user data in the first place.

To that end, we’d like to explain how Brave even knows data points like monthly active users or daily search queries. We keep basic aggregate counts of how many times the browser is downloaded each day, across desktop, iOS, and Android. These counts tell us only that some computer or mobile device downloaded the browser, and the platform of that device; it does not tell us who or on which exact device.

We’re able to keep a similar count of daily and monthly usage based on something called the “daily usage ping.” At essence, this is a once-per-day ping from the browser client to our servers, telling us that the browser was opened on a device. Along with this ping is included the date Brave was installed on that device; in this way we can calculate retention, and ensure we’re not double counting. All data is collected and analyzed at an aggregate level, and safeguards are in place to ensure no personal data is collected. These safeguards can be reviewed in our open-source codebase.

We use a similar mechanism to tally daily queries in Brave Search—we can know how many queries happened, but not who made them, the text of the query itself, or the query results.

Finally, to understand usage of our individual features, we utilize Privacy Preserving Product Analytics (or P3A for short). This mechanism is also open-source and can be reviewed by anyone.

→ Learn more about Brave’s usage data and network requests.