Web3 | Identosphere Blogcatcher

Metaversal Weekly Recap: CryptoPunks surge, Pump.fun slumps.

After two weeks of heated testimony and debate, the case against Roman Storm now rests with a jury.

The BTC treasury leader posted massive unrealized gains and filed for new preferred stock to fund more buys.

Universal Market Access (UMA) was founded by 2 ex Goldman Sachs traders that wanted to make global markets universally accessible through financial smart contracts that used synthetic assets on Ethereum. However, this was taking place long before the massive boom of DeFi summer of 2020. As a result, UMA shifted to building an optimistic oracle to power prediction markets as a decentralised ‘truth machine’, thus expanding oracle use cases. Through game theoretic models, UMA managed to properly incentivise its token holders to act as voters, rewarding them for good predictions & disputes, and vice versa. Later on, Hart Lambur also co-founded Across, an intent-based optimistic bridge that set out to create a seamless UX for unifying EVM chains. Through their solver network, Across managed to achieve fast (as low as 2 seconds) and cheap bridging, abstracting away crosschain complexities, without any security tradeoffs.

Topics covered in this episode:

Hart’s background Universal Market Access, from synthetic assets to oracles Building Across UMA’s optimistic oracle Incentivizing voters & resolving disputes Dealing with invalid outcomes Optimistic security assumptions UMA x Across dual token interactions Across’ intent-based bridge Pricing mechanism & solver competition ZK settlement Bridging fragmentation Abstracting & unifying cross-chain bridging Bridging between rollups UMA & Across governance systems

Episode links:

Hart Lambur on X Across Protocol on X UMA Protocol on X

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 Chorus One: one of the largest node operators worldwide, trusted by 175,000+ accounts across more than 60 networks, Chorus One combines institutional-grade security with the highest yields at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

Inside Base’s new app, AI agents are turning chat prompts into onchain actions.

Large-cap crypto assets struggled to hold gains after a strong July, weighed down by weak U.S. jobs data and tariff uncertainties.

The NFT company's former CEO has gone silent after being accused of rugging the project's fractionalized CryptoPunks vault.

David Hoffman: Paul Atkins wants America's markets onchain. They're coming to Ethereum.

The Japanese investment firm is getting more aggressive in its fundraising efforts.

With this purchase, the exchange has recaptured a spot in the top 10 public bitcoin treasury holders.

Almost half of Jupiter’s trading volume is routed through proprietary AMMs, highlighting growing centralization on Solana’s top DEX aggregator.

What really caused the breakdown between tech and media—and what comes next?

Erik Torenberg sits down with Balaji Srinivasan (entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Network State) to explore the long-building conflict between Silicon Valley and legacy journalism. Balaji explains how the collapse of traditional media business models gave rise to political capture, clickbait, and adversarial coverage of the tech industry.

They discuss why “going direct” is no longer optional, how tech became the villain in establishment narratives, and what it would take to build a new truth infrastructure - from decentralized content creation to cryptographic verification.

This episode covers power, distribution, and the future of media, with a signature mix of historical insight, social analysis, and Balaji’s forward-looking frameworks.

Timecodes: 

0:00 Introduction 

1:26 The Media vs. Tech Conflict

2:11 The Collapse of Journalism Revenue

2:39 Rise of Wokeness and Political Realignment

6:50 State vs. Network: A New Framework

9:00 The Power Structure of Media Institutions

19:25 The Role of Distribution and the Internet

29:20 The Social War: Red vs. Blue America

30:05 X Day and the Shift in Social Media Power

42:56 Strategies for Technologists: Go Direct

48:36 The Importance of Individual Creators

1:10:00 Decentralized Truth and the Ledger of Record

1:36:00 The Future of Media, Democracy, and Equality

1:37:08 Conclusion & Final Thoughts

Resources

Find Balaji on X: https://x.com/balajis

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

Visa is expanding its settlement network to cover more stablecoins and networks, though usage by merchants still appears to be limited.

Chastain’s conviction for the “first-ever digital asset insider trading scheme” has been overturned, with the legacy NFT marketplace’s former Head of Product walking free.

The new trust gives accredited investors exposure to $IP, the native token of the intellectual property-focused Story blockchain.

A wave of companies stacking crypto on their balance sheets could increase market risk, with Galaxy Digital comparing it to the 1920s investment trust boom.

Bitcoin finished July at $115,750, marking its highest monthly close on record and underscoring renewed strength in the world’s largest cryptocurrency

Fuelling Creativity and Expanding Possibility with BAT

Since its March debut, the Brave Rewards 3.0 Partner Program has continued to accelerate, expanding Basic Attention Token (BAT) utility across Web3. The program connects partners with Brave’s over 91 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.

In July, our partners found creative applications for BAT across digital identity and collectibles, physical merch, cause-driven campaigns, and immersive social games. This post covers that progress, and what’s coming next. 

Brave Ads Campaign Highlights

In July, the Brave browser featured numerous New Tab Takeover campaigns from Rewards 3.0 partners, including Coinage, Decentraland, GolfN, GuanoCoin, Karate Combat, Novacast AI, Ubisoft, and Unstoppable Domains, bringing premium visibility to partners while rewarding users with BAT.

Users can earn BAT for viewing these campaigns on Brave’s New Tab Page with Brave Rewards enabled. To turn on Rewards, click the BAT icon in the browser’s address bar or navigate to brave://rewards/.

In parallel, Brave joined Pudgy Penguins’ viral profile picture campaign on X, sporting custom BAT and Brave-themed Pudgy PFPs. The playful collaboration generated a wave of positive engagement on social media, with shoutouts from fans, Pudgy Penguins, and Pudgy CEO Luca Netz.

Additionally, a recent Brave Rewards update introduced the ability to add banner images to the Rewards Offer Wall, enhancing the browsing experience and showcasing partner content more dynamically. (See examples below.)

Updates from our Rewards 3.0 Program Partners Bandit’s Badchain

Bandit’s $1M Growth Fund, announced in June, is now live, with a detailed launch article published on Cryptopolitan. The fund supports Web3 projects running self-hosted campaigns through Brave Ads, powered by Bandit’s proven tools like quests, referrals, and NFT mints. Bandit is actively sourcing participants with a focus on authentic, product-led growth. As Brave approaches 100 million users, the Growth Fund offers a powerful opportunity for Web3 builders to find early market fit within one of the most crypto-native audiences on the Web.

In July, Bandit also helped GuanoCoin launch a new on-chain quest for BAT holders on Solana, offering over 5M GUANO in rewards. (See the GuanoCoin section below for details.)

Decentraland

On Friday, July 11, Brave and the BAT Community, alongside Billions Network, hosted Masked but Human, an immersive metaverse event in Decentraland. The event drew in attendees from 31 countries, many of whom shared real-time updates on X. The evening opened with a presentation on Brave and BAT, followed by an interactive afterparty featuring live music from DJ Billy Teacoin. During the event, over 75 limited-edition Brave-themed character mask Wearables were minted by event attendees.

Building on the success of Masked but Human, the BAT Community plans to host more immersive gatherings and multiplayer experiences in Decentraland. Fans who missed the July 11 event will have future opportunities to claim the collectible Brave Wearable, with additional Brave and BAT-themed Wearables and Emotes already in the works.

Download the Decentraland app now to get your avatar ready for the next event.

Fanon & Brave Games

Brave and Fanon continue to work closely to develop Brave Games: an interactive campaign that merges Fanon’s social gaming platform with Rewards 3.0 partner activations to create a gamified, community-powered adventure—with BAT fueling the fun. 

Players will join teams, solve clues, complete missions, and outlast rivals across multi-layered rounds that blend prediction mechanics, social strategy, and surprise twists (including undercover “moles”). The game unfolds across the Brave browser, Fanon’s platform, and social channels like X and Discord, immersing players in a uniquely Brave experience that weaves in themes of privacy, security, and digital defiance.

Top KOLs from across Web3 will also join the fray, rallying their communities and stirring up team rivalry. With high suspense, shifting alliances, and plenty of chaos, Brave Games is coming soon.

Get on the list now and Follow on X to get the alpha.

GolfN

Brave and GolfN are putting the finishing touches on an exclusive merch capsule for the GolfN Pro Shop, featuring custom Brave golf towels, tees, and ball markers. This launch introduces new lifestyle-oriented utility for BAT, with items available for purchase using BAT, other cryptocurrencies, or credit cards. A dedicated banner in the Brave Merch Store will direct users directly to GolfN’s storefront.

This drop marks the next step in a partnership that links on-chain rewards with off-chain adventures on the fairway. Teasers of the upcoming merch can be found below.

In June, GolfN CEO Jared Phillips joined episode 79 of The Brave Technologist to discuss how AI and crypto are transforming the future of golf.

GuanoCoin

Since joining the Rewards 3.0 Partner Program in March, GuanoCoin’s BAT Cave has grown to over 250,000 BAT locked—an 11% increase since last month—signaling rising community engagement and long-term confidence in the BAT ecosystem. By locking BAT in the Cave, holders help reduce circulating supply and strengthen BAT’s utility on Solana, all while earning GUANO rewards.

In July, GuanoCoin partnered with Bandit to launch a new Web3 quest for BAT holders on Solana. The first 1,000 participants to complete simple tasks, such as joining GuanoCoin Telegram community or engaging on social, will be entered to win a share of 5 million GUANO. The quest is live until August 17 at quest.guanocoin.com. GuanoCoin also established a BAT/SOL liquidity pool on Meteora with nearly 30,000 BAT and 30 SOL locked. The pool has generated 1,500 BAT and 1.5 SOL in fees to date, which have been reinvested to deepen liquidity and support the BAT ecosystem on Solana. 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 and experiments emerging from the Cave.

Moonwalk Fitness

Brave is proud to sponsor Moonwalk for Water, a series of global charity games in support of #TeamWater, a movement led by creators like MrBeast (a verified Brave Creator with over 417M YouTube subscribers), Mark Rober (former NASA engineer and science content creator with nearly 70M subscribers) and hundreds of other top creators across digital platforms.

Running throughout August on the Moonwalk Fitness app, Moonwalk for Water features weekly step challenges to raise funds for WaterAid, a nonprofit dedicated to providing clean drinking water to underserved communities worldwide. Brave is contributing 12,500 BAT on Solana to support the initiative. Half of all donations, including Brave’s, go directly to WaterAid, while the other half powers in-app prize pools that incentivize daily movement and friendly competition.

Additionally, participants can join sponsored charity games by making a $10 nonrefundable microdonation, 100% of which goes to WaterAid, transforming each step into an act of solidarity with the millions who walk long distances every day to access clean water.

Brave has also joined Moonwalk’s new Communities feature, giving fans a dedicated space to join invite-only games, share updates, and compete in group challenges for BAT prize pools. Download Moonwalk Fitness on iOS or Android and search “Brave,” or use our invite link to join.

STEPN

Brave is teaming up with STEPN for the GMT Pay Raffle, a campaign already underway where users can collect tickets by engaging in STEPN’s GMT Pay ecosystem. The raffle is currently scheduled to conclude in September, with Brave slated to join the campaign shortly, potentially extending the timeline to give more users a chance to participate.

Brave will also sponsor bonus BAT and BAT NFT prizes, introducing more ways for participants to earn and explore utility with Basic Attention Token. Raffle winners will also have the chance to earn GMT Pay-branded sneakers and other collectible NFT rewards.

Stay tuned for more details coming soon. Follow @AttentionToken and @Stepnofficial on X to be the first to know when the raffle goes live.

Ubisoft

On July 1, Brave and Ubisoft co-hosted Masters of pETHanque, a satellite event at EthCC in Cannes, France. The tournament welcomed over 150 players and more than 350 visitors throughout the day, offering a hands-on experience to promote the upcoming Brave-themed avatar skin in Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E, a narrative-driven adventure where players shape the story in a dystopian world. (View photos from the event here.) 

The upcoming Brave avatar skin embodies digital defiance, created for players who challenge the status quo and value agency both in-game and online. The collectible skin will be available to mint with BAT in the coming months.

Captain Laserhawk continues to gain momentum, with 10K early access players, 3K weekly active users, and added visibility as a Netflix original animated series. Combined with Ubisoft’s 134 million global players and 26.4 million social followers, this partnership introduces Brave to an expansive new audience of gamers around the world.

Unstoppable Domains

Adoption of the new .brave on-chain top-level domain, launched in May with Unstoppable Domains, continues to grow, with over 8,500 domains minted to date. Each .brave domain represents a piece of digital identity that lives fully on-chain.

.brave domains enable human-readable crypto transactions via the Brave Wallet, censorship-resistant websites hosted on IPFS and accessible directly in the Brave browser without extensions, and more.

Fans can still claim theirs at get.unstoppabledomains.com/brave, using BAT, other cryptocurrencies, or a credit card.

Native resolution support for .brave domains will launch in the Brave browser and Brave Wallet with version 1.81, targeted for early August.

Zcash Media

In June, Zcash Media released a new educational video, “Is This Zcash’s Biggest Upgrade? (Zcash in Brave Browser),” highlighting the impact of Brave’s integration of shielded Zcash transactions. Produced as part of Zcash Media’s collaboration with Brave and the Rewards 3.0 Partner Program, the video underscores our shared mission to protect user privacy and drive adoption of privacy-preserving technologies.

The video explores:

Why this is a major milestone for both Zcash and Brave How it could accelerate Zcash adoption An interview with James Mudgett, Brave’s VP of iOS & Web3, on the future of the partnership

As of April (v1.77 on desktop), users can send, receive, and buy shielded ZEC directly in Brave Wallet, thanks to our continued partnership with the Electric Coin Co. (ECC) and Filecoin Foundation, first announced at Mainnet 2023.

How interested partners can get involved

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. Get in touch to learn more.

Stay tuned for more partner announcements and ways to engage with BAT.

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 91 million monthly active users. Learn more at brave.com and basicattentiontoken.org.

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

Coinbase said it will begin offering tokenized stocks, derivatives, prediction markets and early-stage token sales to U.S. customers in the coming months

DeFi Play of the Week: Rumpel unlocks your illiquid deposits and points.

The call to extend the CFTC’s authority to be able to regulate non-security crypto assets echoes the CLARITY Act.

The stablecoin giant posted monster profits as it readies new strategies for a post-GENIUS U.S. market.

The commission is ready to go all-in on bringing markets onchain. Wait, what?

Chair Paul Atkins announced the initiative in a statement today, calling crypto a “generational opportunity.”

Large-cap crypto assets are holding steady today, with BTC trading near $118,000.

Former OpenSea exec Nate Chastain's convictions for wire fraud and money laundering have been overturned.

Circle Internet Financial has expanded the reach of USD Coin, its dollar-backed stablecoin, by deploying native USDC and the upgraded Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) v2 on the Sei Network

The post Congratulations, Figma! (NYSE: FIG) appeared first on Greylock.

The two founders of Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin mixing service, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to operating an unlicensed money-transmission business that laundered more than $100 million in proceeds from dark-web marketplaces and online fraud schemes

The CryptoPunks floor price has surged to its highest level since April 2022 amid a broader NFT resurgence, though the rally still looks relatively mild in ETH terms.

U.S. Bitcoin hashrate growth has stalled near 36% as AI firms increasingly compete for energy deals once used for crypto mining.

YouTuber Andrei Jikh questioned why Ripple’s banking partnerships are yet to translate into meaningful on-chain activity.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday released a policy paper titled “The Road Map to Making America a Crypto Superpower”

A decade after its launch, Ethereum has become the backbone of DeFi and web3.

Robinhood Markets reported second-quarter revenue of $989 million, a 45% jump from a year earlier and ahead of the $908 million analysts expected

After 10 full years on mainnet, the Ethereum network has an awful lot to show for itself onchain.

Inside the new Base app, which has integrated Farcaster and Zora toward a new onchain "everything app" vision.

The DEX experienced unexpected downtime yesterday, which resulted in some users being locked into existing positions and suffering losses.

Investor sentiment seems cautious ahead of key policy events, with Bitcoin’s next move likely to shift markets, according to Glassnode.

Kraken is reportedly seeking fresh capital to solidify its $15B valuation before going public.

A 160-page policy framework outlines stablecoin and market rules, but doesn't have much to say about the Bitcoin reserve.

The multi-front partnership includes a direct bank-to-exchange link, credit card purchases, and crypto rewards conversions.

The ETH community is celebrating the milestone with global events, an NFT, and increased network usage.

Crypto exchange Kraken is in talks to raise about $500 million in fresh capital at a valuation close to $15 billion, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the matter

The company plans to utilize its TAO treasury to earn yield and build infrastructure for Bittensor.

JPMorgan Chase & Co

Indonesia will sharply increase taxes on cryptocurrency transactions from 1 August under a finance-ministry regulation published on 30 July

Despite utilizing multi-party computation (MPC), exchanges remain exposed to breaches if internal systems and wallet infrastructure are assumed to be secure by default, according to Blockaid.

Ethereum, the pioneering programmable blockchain network, celebrated its 10th anniversary on July 30, 2025

What happens when AI starts generating content for everyone—and no one wants to watch it?

In this episode, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and ad tech veteran Antonio García Martínez join a16z General Partner, Erik Torenberg to unpack the shifting economics of attention: from the rise of “AI slop” and spammy feeds to the difference between what we want to pay attention to and what platforms push on us.

They explore:

How AI changes what gets created and what gets seen Why internet ads still mostly suck The return of group chats—and the slow death of mass culture

Based on Chris’s new book The Sirens Call, this is a candid look at what AI might amplify or break in our online lives.

 

Timecodes:

0:00 Introduction 

1:47 Meet the Guests: Chris Hayes & Antonio Garcia Martinez

3:01 The Economics of Attention & AI Slop

6:38 Acquisition vs. Retention: The Attention Challenge

10:01 Fame, Identity, and Social Media Fragmentation

13:21 The Group Chat Solution & Privacy

16:01 Business Models, Community, and Technology

19:01 Mass Culture, Fragmentation, and the Algorithm

23:01 Ad Tech, Personalization, and Advertising Effectiveness

29:01 The Future: AI, Growth, and Abundance

 

Resources: 

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

Find Antonio on X: https://x.com/antoniogm

Learn more about Chris’ book ‘The Sirens' Call’: https://sirenscallbook.com/

Learn more about Antonio’s book ‘Chaos Monkeys’: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/chaos-monkeys-antonio-garcia-martinez?variant=32207601532962

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

Sygnum’s latest report shows Bitcoin’s strong momentum from ETF inflows and low supply is facing pressure as altcoins gain ground.

The European Central Bank is softening its stance on euro stablecoins as the U.S. doubles down on dollar-backed assets with the GENIUS Act.

A self-minting AI artist is making waves on Zora, launching its own tokenized art and coins daily with no humans in the loop.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 29 July granted accelerated approval to rule changes from Nasdaq, Cboe and NYSE

MicroStrategy has closed the $2.52 billion initial public offering of its bitcoin-focused subsidiary, Strategy (ticker STRC)

Authorized participants can now settle ETFs directly with crypto assets.

Linea just unveiled a new ETH-aligned model poised to offer inspiration to other L2s.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially acknowledged BlackRock's filing to permit staking for its spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The legislation aims to guarantee crypto holdings count toward home loans without conversion.

Nasdaq-listed 180 Life Sciences is pivoting to Ethereum after raising millions.

The trend is being driven by new legislation, especially the GENIUS Act, and rising adoption, positioning stablecoins as a long-term force in digital finance.

Despite slowing ETF momentum, ETH derivatives data from Glassnode show capital is rotating from Bitcoin into Ethereum.

Online brokerage eToro said it is broadening its 24-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week service to cover about 100 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds

Standard Chartered Bank said corporate entities that store Ether on their balance sheets could eventually control one-tenth of the cryptocurrency’s total supply, a ten-fold jump from today’s levels

A European domain registrar is moving millions of domains onto the blockchain, making them tradable RWAs on platforms like OpenSea and Magic Eden.

BitMine Immersion Technologies said its board has authorized an open-ended program to repurchase up to $1 billion of the crypto miner’s common stock, sending the shares about 9% lower in early New York trading

Bitmain Technologies, the world's largest manufacturer of Bitcoin mining hardware based in China, is preparing to open its first factory and headquarters in the United States

SharpLink Gaming will serve as a steward of Linea’s DeFi scene, showcasing the ecosystem’s focus on Ethereum alignment.

United Arab Emirates lender RAKBANK has introduced cryptocurrency trading for its retail customers, making it the first conventional bank in the country to offer the service.

Our chart of the week is ZORA.

Trends to Watch (Zora ecosystem, Fed meeting)

MicroStrategy Inc. has sharply increased the size of its planned capital raise to about $2.8 billion, up from the $500 million outlined earlier this week.

The public finance company is teaming up with top crypto players to hold SUI as its main reserve asset.

U.S. spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds notched their 17th straight day of inflows on 28 July

A new wave of chat and payment apps are looking to scale your offline digital capabilities.

The activation allows users to leverage more than 100 different cryptocurrencies, including memecoins like Fartcoin, in its “Pay with Crypto” option.

Zora’s Creator Coins + tradeable posts fuses Instagram‑style UX with onchain liquidity.

The CEX says RWUSD aims to “benchmark yields in RWAs” like U.S. T-Bills, but the product isn’t available to U.S. traders.

a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Martin Casado sit down with technologist and investor Balaji Srinivasan to explore how the metaphors we use to describe AI—whether as god, swarm, tool, or oracle—reveal as much about us as they do about the technology itself.

Balaji, best known for his work in crypto and network states, also brings a deep background in machine learning. Together, the trio unpacks the evolution of AI discourse, from monotheistic visions of a singular AGI to polytheistic interpretations shaped by culture and context. They debate the practical and philosophical: the current limits of AI, why prompts function like high-dimensional programs, and what it really takes to “close the loop” in AI reasoning.

This is a systems-level conversation on belief, control, infrastructure, and the architectures that might govern future societies.

 

Timecodes:

0:00 Introduction: The Polytheistic AGI Framework

1:46 Personal Journeys in AI and Crypto

3:18 Monotheistic vs. Polytheistic AGI: Competing Paradigms

8:20 The Limits of AI: Chaos, Turbulence, and Predictability

9:29 Platonic Ideals and Real-World Systems

14:10 Decentralized AI and the End of Fast Takeoff

14:34 Surprises in AI Progress: Language, Locomotion, and Double Descent

25:45 Prompting, Verification, and the Age of the Phrase

29:44 AI, Crypto, and the Grounding Problem

34:26 Visual vs. Verbal: Where AI Excels and Struggles

37:19 The Challenge of Markets, Politics, and Adversarial Systems

40:11 Amplified Intelligence: AI as a Force Multiplier

43:37 The Polytheistic Counterargument: Convergence and Specialization

48:17 AI’s Impact on Jobs: Specialists, Generalists, and the Future of Work

57:36 Security, Drones, and Digital Borders

1:03:41 AI, Power, and the Balance of Control

1:06:33 The Coming Anti-AI Backlash

1:09:10 Global Implications: Labor, Politics, and the Future

 

Resources:

Find Balaji on X: https://x.com/balajis

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

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, has seen his net worth rise to approximately $75

Marathon Digital Holdings Inc

ETH rallied above $3,900 today, even as Bitcoin struggled to regain momentum after a large-scale sell-off.

A hacker who drained roughly $32 million in crypto assets from GMX earlier this week has returned the funds after the derivatives exchange offered a 10% “white-hat” bounty

Contributors offered more than seven times the guaranteed allocation of $50 million into the overallocation fund in the hope of receiving extra tokens.

The new tokenized social feed resembling Instagram garnered new speculative energy (and controversy) on Base.

The post Introducing Fable: AI-Native Human Risk Management appeared first on Greylock.

The Nasdaq-listed drug company is going all-in on BNB as crypto treasury companies continue to diversify.

PayPal Holdings Inc

Momentum has surpassed $150 million in TVL, and now plans to bring over EVM and Solana projects to Sui using the Wormhole bridge.

A recent Gallup survey reveals that 14% of American adults currently own cryptocurrency, while 60% express no interest in purchasing it, and only 4% plan to buy crypto in the near future

MicroStrategy Inc. received back-to-back price-target increases from two Wall Street firms, underscoring growing bullishness on the software maker’s bitcoin-heavy balance sheet.

After years of pushing the digital yuan, China is quietly warming to stablecoins backed by its currency.

SharpLink Gaming has acquired 77,210 ETH worth approximately $295 million .

With ZORA rallying nearly 900% in the past month, top crypto personalities are debating whether creator-linked tokens truly hold lasting value or are just ‘shitcoins.’

New altcoin listings on Korean exchanges have led to significant price rallies in tokens such as SYRUP, HYPER, and MOODENG.

Weekly Recap: Roman Storm's trial kicks off in NYC, ETH treasury cos level up.

Investor demand for spot Ether exchange-traded funds accelerated this week, extending a 16-day streak of net inflows and reinforcing a rotation out of Bitcoin-linked products

ECC is committed to deliver digital cash through privacy protocol (Zcash) and product innovation. We believe this is the best strategy to support our mission of economic freedom, including the […]

Source

Founded in 2018, Dragonfly has quickly become one of the most prestigious crypto VCs. Dragonfly was one of the first to adopt a global approach to backing founders and disruptive tech, all while building a strong brand that allowed them to secure top-tier deals. Join us for a fascinating discussion with Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, to learn the secrets behind running a top-tier crypto VC and what made Dragonfly succeed where others have failed.

Topics covered in this episode:

Haseeb’s background, from poker to crypto Effective altruism Crypto investment Developing judgement The vision behind Dragonfly Consensus vs. non-consensus deals KPIs People, Product & Markets Thoughts on the current crypto market The evolution of crypto VCs Advice for crypto founders The importance of discipline Is the golden era of crypto investing sunsetting?

Episode links:

Haseeb Qureshi on X Dragonfly on X

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 Chorus One: one of the largest node operators worldwide, trusted by 175,000+ accounts across more than 60 networks, Chorus One combines institutional-grade security with the highest yields at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.

As Ethereum turns 10, we're feeling nostalgic. Here are some of the network's most pivotal EIPs.

Christie’s International Real Estate clients will be able to buy and sell homes via cryptocurrency.

Prosecutors testified they have yet to rule out charges against the firm's investing partners.

Analysts from Bitwise and CryptoQuant separately argue that growing institutional investment is reshaping the market.

SharpLink Gaming said it has appointed Joseph Chalom, a 20-year BlackRock veteran who most recently led the asset manager’s digital-assets strategy, as its new co-chief executive officer

Nasdaq-listed Windtree Therapeutics has announced plans to raise up to $520 million in new funding, with approximately 99% of the proceeds intended to purchase BNB for its corporate treasury

Strategic hire accelerates Ethereum treasury ambitions from the top.

Christie’s International Real Estate has created a dedicated division that will handle property sales conducted entirely in cryptocurrencies, according to the New York Times

Strategy continues to raise wild amounts of cash as it barrels forward in its BTC acquisition.

Brazilian securitization firm VERT is using the XRP Ledger to tokenize private credit, beginning with a $130 million agribusiness receivables certificate.

More than 90% of illicit crypto flowing into Kyrgyz exchanges is tied to sanctions evasion, with analysts citing growing links to Russian paramilitary and darknet actors.

Some unverified SolCard users lost access to their virtual debit cards, but a company representative says a no-KYC option will be reinstated.

On this episode of The Ben & Marc Show, a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz sit down with Erik Torenberg— General Partner at a16z and founder of the media company Turpentine—to unpack how the internet shattered the old media order and reshaped the way power works in America.

What begins as a look at the evolution of media quickly becomes something bigger: a conversation about truth, trust, and the collapse of institutional authority. They explore how social media became both an x-ray and an engine, why authenticity now beats polish, and how the rules of politics, and journalism, have permanently changed.

Together, they break down:

-Why 2017 marked a structural break between tech and the press

-Trump’s real training ground

-The tension between objectivity, activism, and “speaking truth to power”

-Why podcasters. not pundits, are setting the agenda

- How the barbell strategy is reshaping media: short-form virality meets long-form depth

With stops at Watergate, the rise of Rogan, the fall of legacy gatekeepers, and the media playbooks behind Obama, Trump, and the Kardashians—this episode explores how we got here, what’s next, and what it means for founders, voters, and anyone trying to build (or tell) a story.

 

Timecodes: 

0:00 Introduction

0:55 The Evolution of Media: From Centralization to Fragmentation

2:34 The Internet’s Impact on Traditional Media

4:06 Unionization and Technological Change in Media

6:39 Oversupply and Competition in News Organizations

8:44 The Changing Role and Ideology of Journalism

11:46 Speak Truth to Power: Conflicts in Journalism

13:39 The 2016 Election and the Collapse of Media Trust

23:20 Martin Gurri and the Crisis of Authority

31:34 Decentralization: From the 1970s to Social Media

48:06 Trump, Reality TV, and the New Media Playbook

59:10 Drama, Authenticity, and the Barbell Effect in Media

1:16:40 Podcasts, Direct Communication, and the Future of Authority

1:34:48 Advice for Founders and the Importance of Personal Branding

1:37:35 Conclusion & Final Thoughts

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

The token launchpad wars are coming to a head, with PumpFun and Launchcoin on Believe plunging as LetsBonk implements a new buyback mechanism.

MicroStrategy has increased its preferred stock offering from $500 million to $2 billion to finance additional Bitcoin purchases

The total crypto market capitalization has decreased by nearly 5% over the past 24 hours.

Solana core developers have lifted the blockchain’s block limit to 60 million compute units, a 20% increase designed to accommodate higher transaction volumes and lower fees as usage rises

Tether Holdings Ltd

Top places to farm rewards on your stablecoins and ETH right now.

The firm bought the coveted Punk from Robert Leshner in exchange for preferred stock, while also expanding its ETH treasury.

The public mining firm now has a whopping 566,776 ETH in its coffers.

As yet another TAO treasury firm launches, Bittensor's subnet ecosystem is growing

The ETH treasury company is the first to venture into NFT acquisition mode.

BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum ETF, trading under the ticker ETHA, has accumulated more than $10 billion in assets under management roughly one year after its debut, according to fund-flow data compiled on 24 July

Bank of America said on Thursday that a number of U.S. banks are preparing to issue their own crypto-linked stablecoins

Circle said on Thursday it will list its yield-bearing stablecoin, USYC, on Binance, allowing institutional clients of the world’s largest crypto exchange to post the token as collateral for trades

The institutional ETH embrace is speeding ETH ETF adoption.

Teaming up with interoperability protocol Wormhole, Centrifuge is launching V3 across six EVM chains.

The largest centralized exchange in the United States is poised to challenge the decentralized perpetual futures leader, Hyperliquid.

The DoJ’s case against Roman Storm may be nearing its end, but scrutiny over shaky evidence, contested tracing methods, and potential prosecutorial overreach is only intensifying.

An often-overlooked part of the cryptocurrency market recorded a huge redemption in May, drawing attention back to physical Bitcoin bars.

A U.S. bankruptcy court has approved FTX’s plan to begin its next distribution of funds to creditors on 30 September 2025.

A survey of 4,599 users reveals rising demand for practical, everyday crypto spending.

The DeFi capital allocator’s TVL is up 250% since April, and the protocol’s SPK token is now following suit.

The core team behind Jito Network plans to distribute 100% of protocol fee revenue to the DAO treasury, relinquishing its share under a new proposal.

今天是 Horizen 发展历程中的一个重要里程碑——Horizen 已完成向 Base 的迁移，ZEN 现已正式作为 ERC-20 代币在 Base 上线，释放了流动性、强大的 DeFi 集成，并为私人金融的新前沿奠定了基础。

这一里程碑标志着 Horizen 新时代的开始，我们从传统的 UTXO 链发展成为一个模块化的应用链生态系统，为下一波支持隐私的 DeFi 而构建。

Base 上的 ERC20 ZEN 智能合约： https://basescan.org/address/0xf43eB8De897Fbc7F2502483B2Bef7Bb9EA179229

ZEN 持有者：立即在Base上领取您的 ZEN！

如果您在迁移之前持有 ZEN，那么您现在可以在 Base 上领取您的 ZEN来访问新网络并参与 DeFi。

ZEN 领取门户： https://horizen.io/zenclaim 迁移指南： https://horizen.io/horizen-upgrade

领取没有截止日期，但要开始在 DeFi 中使用您的 ZEN，请立即迁移。

安全提醒： 只相信来自官方渠道的信息。 我们绝不会向您发送任何提供优惠或指示的私信。 查看我们的安全指南以避免诈骗。 第一天上线：在领先的 DEX 上交易 ZEN

ZEN 现已在 Base 生态系统内的顶级去中心化交易所上线并流通：

Aero： ZEN/WETH ZEN/Aero ZEN/ZRO ZEN/cb.BTC Uniswap v3： ZEN/USDC

立即开始交易：[ Aerodrome ] | [ Uniswap ]

如果您的 ZEN 位于支持 ZEN 迁移的中央交易所，则迁移过程应该是自动的 – 您的交易所代表您处理迁移。

检查交易所支持状态，了解您的交易所是否支持 ZEN 迁移。

接下来： 利用单面金库赚取收益

Horizen 在 Base 平台上线的初始阶段还将推出八种初始 LP 策略。每种定制策略都支持 ZEN 的流动性，并为各类用户提供收益机会。

这些 LP 策略是 Horizen 在 Base 平台上更广泛的 DeFi 策略的一部分。Aerodrome 策略经过优化，旨在捕获 $AERO 的发行，并为 LP 和 veAERO 支持者创造收益。Uniswap 的金库在 LP 策略方面更为保守。更多内容即将推出。

敬请关注。

请继续关注 – 我们将在保险库上线时宣布。

通过 Singularity 实现隐私保护的 DeFi

只需几天时间，钱包级隐私将通过我们与 Singularity 的集成激活，直接在您现有的钱包中解锁隐身交易。

这是 Horizen 模块化隐私堆栈的初始阶段：

隐秘隐私功能已在您现有的钱包中原生激活 无需扩展或更改钱包 与 Uniswap、Aerodrome 等兼容

具有钱包和交易混淆功能的完整暗池隐私功能预计将于今年晚些时候在主网上推出。

与 Singularity 一起参加 AMA

美国东部时间 7 月 25 日上午 8:00 在 Horizen X Space 上：了解我们如何合作构建私人 DeFi、如何保持合规以及新 Horizen 的下一步计划。

现在在 X 上设置提醒：@horizenglobal

ZEN 已上线Base

随着 ZEN 在 Base 平台上线，Horizen 已正式从协议基础设施转型为蓬勃发展的模块化 DeFi 生态系统。我们的目标是：

可组合、合规的隐私 原生隐私 DeFi 面向未来、应用链驱动的经济

欢迎来到 ZEN 的新时代——下一代信任、隐私和模块化 DeFi 的经济支柱。

立即开始 在Bas领取您的 ZEN：https://horizen.io/horizen-upgrade 立即开始在 Aerodrome 和 Uniswap 上交易 探索horizen.io上的保险库、隐私工具以及即将推出的一切 欢迎来到隐私原生 DeFi 的新时代。 欢迎来到 Horizen，现在位于 Base。

The post Horizen已成功迁入Base appeared first on Horizen Blog.

MARA Holdings, Inc. said Wednesday it plans to raise $850 million through a private offering of zero-coupon convertible senior notes maturing in 2032

On July 23, 2025, Arabian Gulf Business Insight (AGBI)’s journalist Chris Hamill-Stewart published a thought-provoking article featuring XRSI CEO Kavya Pearlman, examining the legal blind spots surrounding smart glasses in the UAE.

With the launch of Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, questions of consent, biometric surveillance, and data protection are front and center. Kavya weighed in on the growing risks:

“As the MENA region scales its adoption, the question is: will it import the tech and the blind spots?” — Kavya Pearlman, XRSI

The UAE’s privacy and cybercrime laws prohibit filming individuals without consent, regardless of intent. With smart glasses quietly recording in public, unsuspecting users may face serious legal consequences.

Read the full article on AGBI

As immersive technologies become more embedded in our daily lives, so do the complexities around consent, context, and accountability. The casual use of smart glasses may seem like harmless innovation, but behind every hands-free video or voice interaction lies a web of unspoken data collection, impacting everyone within the frame.

At XRSI, we believe the answer lies not in slowing down innovation, but in governing it responsibly.

That’s why we introduced the Responsible Data Governance (RDG) Standard, an actionable, certifiable solution designed to ensure data is handled with transparency, accountability, and respect for fundamental rights. RDG provides organizations with the tools to proactively address the types of risks outlined in the AGBI article, covering everything from biometric data exposure to lawful cross-border transfers.

Whether you’re a platform provider, smart device manufacturer, or policymaker in the MENA region or beyond, now is the time to build trust, not blind spots.

Learn more about RDG and how to get certified: https://xrsi.org/rdg

The White House plans to publish its first comprehensive report on digital-asset policy on 30 July, White House official Bo Hines said

Crypto protocols that can help you onramp, manage, and transfer your funds privately.

U.S. Coinbase users now have access to a powerful new trading tool, but tread carefully!

Cryptocurrency prices fell amid rising global trade tensions. Still, ETH ETFs continue to drive strong inflows.

JPMorgan Chase is studying a plan to let wealthy clients borrow against their cryptocurrency holdings, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, as soon as next year, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the discussions

SparkDEX’s upcoming SPRK token launch and the recent XRP rally may be driving a breakout for Flare, with FLR price and TVL both showing strong gains

The initiative uses “mirror tokens” of MMF shares on Goldman’s private blockchain platform

There is a stark contrast between public and private blockchains when it comes to how your data is stored and managed. While public blockchains operate like bustling city squares where anyone can gather, observe, and participate, their private counterparts are akin to exclusive private clubs with strict membership requirements and iron-clad confidentiality agreements. So, what’s the difference between public and private blockchains for your data?

Public Vs. Private Blockchains

Imagine a world where every financial transaction you’ve ever made is published in tomorrow’s newspaper for everyone to see. While this may seem like an extreme scenario, every transaction, smart contract execution, and piece of data is visible to anyone with an internet connection on a “transparent” public blockchain. Bitcoin, for instance, contains a permanent, unalterable record of every transaction since its inception in 2009.

Yes, all 800+ million transactions and counting are freely available for analysis by anyone with the curiosity and tools to examine them. This is not entirely a bad thing, but one major downside is that transactions could be traced back to your real identity.

It is worth mentioning that privacy-centric projects like PIVX, Monero, and others employ several methods like zkSNARKS, Ring Signatures, and Stealth Addresses to obfuscate transactions. Although they are not exactly private blockchains, they introduce the element of anonymity.

On the flip side, access is controlled in private blockchains (aka permissioned blockchains). Participation is limited and the data remains visible only to pre-approved entities. When Walmart uses blockchain technology to track food safety across its supply chain, that data isn’t broadcast to the world. Instead, it remains within Walmart’s controlled network of suppliers, distributors, and regulatory partners.

This fundamental architectural difference creates a cascade of implications that touch every aspect of how your data is handled, from the moment it enters the blockchain to decades into the future when that information might still be relevant.

Your Data on Public Blockchains

Public blockchains create what experts call the “transparency paradox.” This is a situation where complete openness can simultaneously enhance and undermine privacy and security. When you interact with a public blockchain, you’re essentially carving your transaction into digital stone.

Traditional blockchain transactions are transparent, revealing details such as the sender and receiver’s addresses, and the amount sent. Every Bitcoin transaction ever made remains accessible today, and barring a catastrophic failure of the entire network, these records will likely outlast many traditional institutions. This permanence creates unprecedented transparency and raises profound questions about the right to data privacy over extended time periods.

To put things in perspective, a cryptocurrency transaction you make today could be analysed by sophisticated algorithms decades from now, potentially revealing patterns and associations that aren’t apparent with current technology. Advanced blockchain analysis firms like Chainalysis and Elliptic have already demonstrated the ability to trace transactions through complex mixing services and identify wallet owners through various correlation techniques.

Your name may not be directly attached to transactions but the digital breadcrumbs you leave can lead back to your identity. Every exchange account you’ve verified, every merchant purchase you’ve made, and every peer-to-peer transaction with someone who knows your identity creates potential links between your blockchain addresses and your real-world persona.

Your Data on Private Blockchains

Private blockchains represent a fundamentally different approach to data handling, prioritizing control and confidentiality over transparency and decentralization. They implement sophisticated access control mechanisms that can restrict who can view data and the specific data different parties can access. In a supply chain blockchain, for example, suppliers might see only the information relevant to their portion of the process, while auditors gain broader access for compliance purposes, and executives receive high-level analytics without exposing sensitive operational details.

This granular control extends to data lifecycle management. Private blockchain operators can implement policies for data retention, archiving, and even deletion. Organizations can also design data governance frameworks that comply with regulations like GDPR while still benefiting from blockchain’s immutability and transparency within controlled parameters.

Private blockchains offer significant advantages for organizations operating under strict regulatory requirements. Financial institutions, healthcare providers, and government agencies can leverage blockchain technology while maintaining compliance with data protection regulations that would be impossible to satisfy on public networks.

The Security Spectrum

The security implications of blockchain architecture extend far beyond simple access control, encompassing everything from cryptographic assumptions to attack vectors and recovery mechanisms.

Decentralization vs. Control Trade-offs

Public blockchains derive their security from radical decentralization, i.e. assumption that no single entity or small group of entities can control enough of the network to compromise its integrity. This model provides exceptional resistance to censorship and single points of failure. It also means that if something goes wrong, there’s often no recourse.

Private blockchains trade some of this decentralized security for organizational control and accountability. While this creates potential single points of failure, it also enables rapid response to security threats, the ability to freeze or reverse transactions in emergency situations, and clear legal frameworks for addressing disputes or breaches.

Cryptographic Key Management

In public blockchains, users must take complete responsibility for protecting their private keys; lose your keys, and your assets are gone forever. The immutable nature of public blockchains means there’s no customer service department to call if you forget your password.

Private blockchains can implement more traditional key management and recovery systems, including multi-signature schemes with organizational oversight, key escrow services, and recovery mechanisms that balance security with usability. This flexibility can be crucial for enterprise applications where complete key loss would be catastrophic.

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

Public vs. Private Blockchains: What’s the Difference for Your Data? was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. are preparing to let institutional clients buy and hold money-market fund shares that are recorded on a private blockchain

Ethereum validators are earning millions by reordering trades, but most users remain unaware of the impact of MEV on their transactions.

It can take more than 15 years to permit and build a new mine in the United States - yet nearly every modern technology we rely on, from smartphones to fighter jets to AI data centers, depends on a steady supply of critical minerals.

In this episode, Erik Torenberg is joined in the studio by Turner Caldwell, founder of Mariana Minerals, along with American Dynamism general partner Erin Price-Wright and partner Ryan McEntush.

Turner spent nearly a decade at Tesla, working his way upstream from factory design to battery materials and mining. Now, he’s building a new kind of mining and refining company - vertically integrated and software-first- designed to meet the demands of our industrial future.

We get into why the industry is so broken, what it actually takes to turn rocks into usable materials, and how the U.S. can rebuild its capacity to mine, refine, and manufacture the things that matter most.

 

Timecodes: 

00:00 Introduction to Critical Minerals

00:45 The Importance of Mining in Modern Technology

00:58 Meet Turner Caldwell and Marianna Minerals

03:02 The Mining and Refining Process

05:10 Challenges in the Mining Industry

07:11 Turner's Journey from Tesla to Marianna

15:31 The Role of AI and ML in Mining

22:00 Geopolitical and Talent Pool Dynamics

23:46 Challenges in Junior Mining Exploration

25:30 Mariana's Product and Approach

25:47 Leveraging Technology in Mining and Construction

28:29 Optimizing Refining Processes with AI

37:31 The Importance of Critical Minerals

41:18 Permitting and Regulatory Challenges

46:08 Future Strategies and International Expansion

46:53 Conclusion and Future Outlook

 

Resources: 

Find Turner on X :https://x.com/tbc415

Find Erin on X: https://x.com/espricewright

Find Ryan on X: https://x.com/rmcentush

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

The post Gen AI Present and Future: A Conversation with Cynthia Stoddard, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Adobe appeared first on Greylock.

This post is part of an ongoing series evaluating Brave’s performance. It describes work done by Kleomenis Katevas (Senior Machine Learning Researcher) and Artem Chaikin (Senior Mobile Security Engineer).

In late 2019, alongside the release of browser version 1.0, Brave ran a series of tests to measure Brave’s performance. These tests showed clear wins in page-load speed, data usage, battery consumption, and other metrics when compared to the default experience in other browsers, and especially against browsers with extension-based ad blockers.

Recently, Brave updated and re-ran these tests specifically for the Android operating system, with the goal of validating whether the Brave 1.0 performance benefits have held as the Brave browser has evolved. The short answer is that, yes, Brave for Android continues to be faster, use less battery and CPU, and consume less mobile data or Wi-Fi bandwidth. In particular, Brave uses, on average, 4% less battery and 9% less CPU; loads webpages 21% faster; and uses 14% less bandwidth among the tested Android browsers. We attribute these performance wins to Brave’s advanced privacy and security features, which block ads, trackers, fingerprinting, and bounce tracking by default. These protections both enhance user privacy and reduce unnecessary network requests and processing overhead, leading to faster load times and lower energy consumption during everyday browsing.

This post will give a full description of the testing environment, methodology, and performance results on Android devices. We plan to publish a similar set of results for desktop and iOS devices in the future.

Testing environment: hardware and software

The hardware used in our testing environment is a popular Android device: the Google Pixel 6a (2022), running Android 13 (build TQ3A.230605.010). It features an octa-core processor (2×2.80 GHz Cortex-X1, 2×2.25 GHz Cortex-A76, and 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A55) and 6 GB of RAM.

The following browser versions, which were the latest available as of July 1, 2025, were used in our testing:

Brave (v1.80.113) Chrome (v138.0.7204.46) DuckDuckGo (v5.240.0) Edge (v137.0.3296.92) Firefox (v140.0.3)

All tests were conducted on a dedicated 50Mpps internet connection in London, UK. The Android device was connected to an internal 5 GHz WiFi network (Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ax).

Metrics and points of comparison

Our performance evaluation focuses on the following attributes of browser performance:

Battery discharge (mAh) – A critical factor for mobile devices, which rely heavily on battery power. High energy consumption is typically associated with poor user experience, leading to shorter usage time and increased anxiety about battery life. CPU utilization (%) – Reflects how intensively the browser engages the processor during activity. Excessive CPU usage can degrade performance, increase device temperature, and negatively affect user experience. Memory utilization (MB) – Measured using proportional set size (PSS) to evaluate how efficiently the browser manages RAM, particularly important for devices with limited memory resources. Page Loading Time (sec) – Assessed via loadEventEnd, it represents the time from the initial request until the full page becomes interactive. Bandwidth consumption (MB) – Captures the total data received (Rx) and sent (Tx) during browsing. These metrics indicate how efficiently the browser handles network transfers, which is especially important in data-sensitive or bandwidth-constrained environments. Workload

For our real-world use case, we tested the 50 most popular websites (as ranked by Brave Search statistics), each paired with a randomly selected subpage—100 shuffled urls in total—while simulating user interaction with the loaded content. Each experiment was repeated 10 times, with a randomized order of the browsing app per run.

For the Android analysis, we first saved the app profiles after opening each browser, skipped the onboarding screens, chose the default settings, and waited 60 seconds to ensure that all components were up-to-date. The same profiles were used across all 10 test runs, with the actual workload of each experiment being:

Restore the browser profile. Open the browser app and wait 60 seconds. For each URL: Open the URL and wait 30 seconds. Scroll down 3 times, with a 5-second wait between each scroll. Close the tab.

See the list of domains included in our tests.

Android benchmarking

To evaluate browser performance on Android, we used our open-source BLaDE infrastructure (v0.3) with a Google Pixel 6a. We implemented a battery-bypass setup, which involved removing the battery, isolating the internal controller, and wiring external power terminals. This hardware modification enables precise power measurements, offering higher accuracy than other, software-based methods.

For accessing page loading time metrics, we employed a proxy server (mitmproxy v8.1.1) and dynamically injected a JavaScript snippet that reported page loading-related metrics to a local Web server.

CPU utilization was monitored by sampling the device’s /proc/stat every 3 seconds. To measure memory overhead per URL we collected the proportional set size (PSS) of the associated browser processes using dumpsys meminfo before closing each tab.

In order to minimize measurement noise, we prepared the device using well-established best practices.

Resource usage

We began by analyzing resource usage—specifically energy, CPU, and memory consumption—per URL, across the five mobile web browsers. Figure 1 shows bar plots for each browser, where each bar represents the total power discharge (in mAh) required for the task. Error bars denote the 95% confidence interval across 10 runs, illustrating the consistency of power usage.

Figure 1: Total Discharge (mAh)

Among the tested browsers, Brave was the most energy-efficient, consuming 557.68 mAh in total—about 3.9% less on average than Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and 23.7% less than DuckDuckGo. A similar trend appears when testing the CPU utilization (Figure 2), with Brave using 5.5% less CPU on average compared to Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and 17.6% less than DuckDuckGo.

Figure 2: CPU utilization (%)

Note that the DuckDuckGo browser consistently showed significantly higher energy consumption across all tests. Upon investigation, we identified a resource management issue: when a tab is closed, the app fails to properly terminate the associated WebView. As a result, background processes continue running, leading to elevated energy usage and inflated performance metrics—particularly in terms of bandwidth received. This issue was especially evident on ebay.com, where live streaming content continued to be received and processed for several minutes after the tab was closed. We have submitted these findings to the DuckDuckGo development team for further investigation.

To evaluate memory usage across different browsers, we monitored the PSS of the relevant browser’s process. For DuckDuckGo, which relies on the operating system’s WebView, we also accounted for the WebView’s memory overhead. Figure 3 presents a cumulative distribution function (CDF) plot of the memory consumption of each browser.

Figure 3: Memory (MB)

Brave is 4.6% higher in total than Chrome, a difference largely explained by Brave’s built-in features—most notably its native ad and tracker blocker, which Chrome lacks. This small trade-off enables better privacy and speed without the need for external extensions. Brave is actively working on reducing memory usage in its native ad and tracker blocker which should reduce this difference significantly in the coming months. Importantly, Brave still uses, on average, 31.1% less memory than DuckDuckGo, 9.8% than Edge, and 40.1% than Firefox, underscoring its efficiency despite the added functionality.

Page load speed

The most noticeable difference for users when using a Web browser is how quickly it loads websites. As mentioned earlier, we leveraged mitmproxy at a local web server, to dynamically inject JavaScript into each loaded website, and measure the time until the loadEventEnd event. These measurements were collected on a per-URL basis, capturing variations across different websites. Figure 4 presents a cumulative distribution function (CDF) plot of these load times for each browser. Brave consistently outperforms the other browsers, with the fastest overall load time distribution, and over 80% of pages loading in less than 2.5 seconds.

Figure 4: Page Loading Time (sec)

Bandwidth consumed

To evaluate bandwidth consumption, we analyzed two key metrics: network Rx, which captures the total amount of data received over the network (Figure 5a); and network Tx, which reflects the total amount of data transmitted (Figure 5b). Error bars in both figures denote the 95% confidence interval across 10 runs. We collected these measurements using adb shell dumpsys netstats, allowing us to accurately track per-app network usage.

Among the tested browsers, Brave demonstrated the most efficient network usage, receiving 359.6 MB and transmitting just 13.6 MB—up to 34% less inbound and 55% less outbound data than DuckDuckGo, and up to 16% less inbound and 51% less outbound than the rest of the competing browsers. These results highlight Brave’s clear advantage in minimizing both inbound and outbound data usage, by blocking unwanted requests.

Figura 5a: Network Rx (MB)

Figura 5b: Network Tx (MB)

Synthetic benchmarks

While synthetic benchmarks like Speedometer, JetStream, and MotionMark are commonly used to evaluate browser performance, they primarily focus on specific aspects of browser functionality:

Speedometer 3.1 measures how quickly a browser can execute JavaScript-based Web applications, simulating user interactions such as typing and updating UI elements.

JetStream 2.2 evaluates JavaScript execution speed and WebAssembly performance, assessing how well a browser handles computationally intensive tasks.

MotionMark 1.3.1 focuses on graphics performance, testing how efficiently a browser can render complex animations and visual effects at 60 frames per second.

Although these tests provide useful insights into raw engine performance, they omit crucial factors that affect real-world browsing—such as privacy protections, ad blocking, and network optimization. Additionally, because browsers like Brave, Chrome, and Edge share the Chromium engine, their benchmark scores tend to be similar, despite significant differences in real-world performance.

To provide a complete picture, we include results from these synthetic benchmarks (Figures 6a, 6b, and 6c), with each test executed 10 times on the latest browser versions. Error bars denote the 95% confidence interval across 10 runs. Under these controlled conditions, Brave consistently performs well, outperforming competitors in some instances (e.g. JetStream 2.2), while also delivering enhanced privacy and efficiency that improve the overall browsing experience.

Figure 6a: Speedometer 3.1 (higher is better)

Figure 6b: JetStream 2.2 (higher is better)

Figure 6c: MotionMark 1.3.1 (higher is better)

Conclusion

As shown above, Brave continues to be the fastest, most resource efficient, and least network-heavy browser for Android devices. This is in part due to the extensive set of privacy and optimization features integrated natively into Brave. In the future we plan to run a similar set of tests for desktop and iOS mobile devices, and to periodically re-run these tests on all operating systems to ensure Brave remains the most performant major browser available.

For questions or comments about the results of this post, please contact the Brave Research team at blade-project@brave.com.

Seizing bull market opportunities can require split-second decisions. On X, that can be a dangerous dynamic.

The influential market-maker urged caution as tokenized stocks gain momentum.

The major exchange brings long‑dated, 24/7 regulated crypto derivatives onshore.

The validator-led upgrade boosts throughput and signals next phase in L1 scaling.

Partnering with Magentic: AI-Driven Savings for the World’s Supply Chains

Robin, Odhran and their team have created AI “Mages” that work seamlessly alongside procurement teams to clarify and simplify supply chains—helping enterprises save time and money.

By Julien Bek and Zefi Hennessy Holland Published July 22, 2025 ROBIN AND ODHRAN. 

Nearly three years after the ChatGPT moment, companies are moving from next-token prediction (text-in-text-out), to automating the work and delivering outcomes (text-in-action-out). With that comes another change in the world of enterprise sales: companies move from selling ROI through seats to selling ROI through outcomes. At Sequoia, we are very excited about the opportunity for vertical agents to deliver outcomes—not only by going after software budgets, but also by taking a cut of the savings that LLMs and thoughtful, domain-specific tailoring unlock. 

If sales is responsible for customers, procurement is responsible for suppliers—and for most companies, the vast majority of costs flow through that function. Procurement teams work tirelessly to ensure suppliers deliver on time, at the right price and in the right quantities. But here’s the challenge: large enterprises work with *tens of thousands* of suppliers while their procurement function is 1/100th of that size. This is a costly gap. McKinsey found that for large enterprises, unfulfilled supplier obligations can leak roughly 2% of spend—for many customers, that’s tens of millions wasted every year.

In an ideal world, each supplier would have a dedicated employee reviewing every contract clause, inspecting every shipment, verifying every invoice and recovering leakage when deliveries fall short. That world has never existed—until now. 

Magentic has created AI agents they call “Mages,” which integrate into existing ERPs, partner seamlessly with procurement teams and immediately impact P&L. Mages are just as magical as they sound: they autonomously search thousands of documents and millions of deliveries to identify late payments, manufacturing quality concerns and other potential issues, then summarize those problems—and propose solutions. Mages can find documents, clauses and rules and track the entire chain of events that led to an issue. Then, they will suggest actions for human review, like drafting emails, updating invoices or notifying stakeholders.

Procurement team members exponentially increase the scale of their work, all while keeping full control. Whether the goal is recouping costs or simply streamlining their supply chain to ship products faster, Magentic can help. This product is not taking existing work done by humans and replacing it with AI. It’s doing work that cannot be done by humans, to achieve both savings and supply chain resilience.

Co-founders Robin Van Aeken and Odhran O’Donoghue met while winning hackathons at Oxford and arrived at this idea from complementary backgrounds. Odhran comes from the bleeding edge of AI research at OpenAI, and Robin understands the world of procurement having worked at McKinsey & Company. Robin and Odhran are forces of nature who joined us last year for Arc—Sequoia’s company-building immersion for pre-seed and seed-stage founders—and we were privileged to have them start the company from our office. We are proud to double down on our support for Robin, Odhran and their growing team by leading their seed round.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI #Funding announcement Partnering with Rillet By Julien Bek, Roelof Botha and Cornelius Menke News Read AI Ascent 2025 Video highlights from our AI conference. Perspective Read Partnering with Tacto: Future-Proof Supply Chains Luciana Lixandru, Julien Bek and Cornelius Menke 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 Magentic: AI-Driven Savings for the World’s Supply Chains appeared first on Sequoia Capital.

This is the 35th post in an ongoing series describing new privacy features in Brave. This post describes work done by Pavel Beloborodov (Senior Software Engineer) and Brian Johnson (Principal Engineer). It was written by Shivan Kaul Sahib (VP, Privacy and Security).

Starting in version 1.81 for Windows users, Brave browser will block Microsoft Recall from automatically taking screenshots of your browsing activity.

Why we’re doing this

Microsoft first announced Recall in May 2024 and immediately drew fire from security and privacy advocates. Recall saved full-screen screenshots every few seconds and stored them in a local plaintext database, leaving it open for exploitation by anyone (including malware) who had access to the machine. The outcry caused Microsoft to hastily roll back the feature and re-work it significantly.

A year later, Recall is back, and Brave is ready for it. We will disable it by default for Windows 11+ users, with a toggle to turn it back on for users who really want Recall.

Block Microsoft Recall toggle in brave://settings/privacy for Windows 11 (and newer) users

Microsoft has, to their credit, made several security and privacy-positive changes to Recall in response to concerns. Still, the feature is in preview, and Microsoft plans to roll it out more widely soon. What exactly the feature will look like when it’s fully released to all Windows 11 users is still up in the air, but the initial tone-deaf announcement does not inspire confidence. 

Given Brave’s focus on privacy-maximizing defaults and what is at stake here (your entire browsing history), we have proactively disabled Recall for all Brave tabs. We think it’s vital that your browsing activity on Brave does not accidentally end up in a persistent database, which is especially ripe for abuse in highly-privacy-sensitive cases such as intimate partner violence.

How we implemented this

Microsoft has said that private browsing windows on browsers will not be saved as snapshots. We’ve extended that logic to apply to all Brave browser windows. We tell the operating system that every Brave tab is ‘private’, so Recall never captures it. This is yet another example of how Brave engineers are able to quickly tweak Chromium’s privacy functionality to make Brave safer for our users (inexhaustive list here). For more technical details, see the GitHub issue for this feature.

Brave is the only major Web browser that disables Microsoft Recall by default in all tabs. 

How to turn Recall back on Go to Settings > Privacy and security (or via brave://settings/privacy) Turn off Block Microsoft Recall Disabling Recall without disabling all screenshots

We were partly inspired by Signal’s blocking of Recall. Given that Windows doesn’t let non-browser apps granularly disable Recall, Signal cleverly uses the DRM flag on their app to disable all screenshots. This breaks Recall, but unfortunately also breaks the ability to take any screenshots, including by legitimate accessibility software like screen-readers. Brave’s approach does not have this limitation since we’re able to granularly disable just Recall; regular screenshotting will still work. While it’s heartening that Microsoft recognizes that Web browsers are especially privacy-sensitive applications, we hope they offer the same granular ability to turn off Recall to all privacy-minded application developers.

IMF lets $PEPE, $MOG and other memecoins become loan collateral, bringing isolated Morpho‑based credit markets to memes.

Six months after his inauguration, President Trump has reshaped his net worth via crypto boosterism.

There's a new top Ethereum treasury operator in town.

The company has stocked up on $2B in BTC as it has looked to raise its crypto profile.

Welcome to Empeiria’s monthly developer update!

Our team has continued to build momentum, focusing on refining our decentralized identity ecosystem for greater reliability, usability, and commercial viability. From blockchain enhancements to portal optimizations, we’ve made strides in preparing our platform for real-world adoption while ensuring privacy and security remain at the forefront.

1. Blockchain and Revocation List Enhancements

Building on last month’s progress, we’ve updated our testnet to fully integrate revocation capabilities. This includes:

Automated Publishing: Revocation lists are now published on the blockchain, ensuring tamper-proof and always-accessible status updates. Verifier Integration: Verifiers can now check if a credential has been revoked without compromising user privacy, adding a robust layer of security to our SSI framework.

These improvements enhance the overall trustworthiness and efficiency of credential management in our ecosystem.

2. Credential Process Improvements in the EVDI Project

We’ve made targeted enhancements to our core credential processes within the EVDI project, focusing on reliability and flexibility:

Unified Error Handling: Errors now include detailed codes and messages, simplifying debugging and improving the overall development experience. This unification ensures consistent behavior, reducing friction for issuers, verifiers, and holders. Credential Offering Limits: We’ve added support for limiting the maximum number of credentials per offering — enabling scenarios like targeted issuances for specific recipients or broader ones (e.g., QR codes for conferences with usage caps from one to unlimited).

These updates streamline credential issuance and management, adding powerful controls for various use cases while maintaining system robustness.

3. Internal Procedures and Testing Optimizations

To support faster and more reliable updates, we’ve streamlined our internal workflows:

Update and Testing Procedures: We’ve introduced scripts for manual tests and ensured comprehensive functional testing during chain updates, allowing us to verify all features efficiently. Improved Coverage: This ensures every update maintains the integrity of our blockchain, wallet, issuer, and verifier components.

These behind-the-scenes enhancements enable us to iterate quickly while upholding high standards of quality.

4. Documentation Updates and AI Bot Integration

We’ve refreshed our documentation to better serve our community:

Reorganization and Alignment: The docs are now more organized and fully aligned with the current state of our platform, making it easier to navigate and understand. AI-Powered Bot Support: We’ve added an intelligent AI bot that draws from our product knowledge to answer questions dynamically — going beyond simple searches to provide guidance on building, configuring, and troubleshooting.

This upgrade empowers developers and users to get the help they need faster, fostering greater adoption.

5. Website and Demo Enhancements

Continuing the momentum from our new site launch, we’ve made further refinements and aligned our demonstrations with the latest features:

Website Improvements: New subpages have been added, along with various fixes to enhance navigation and content clarity, better showcasing our mission in verifiable data and decentralized identity. Demo Updates: All demos now use the newest system versions and include revocation examples to highlight our capabilities, ensuring they reflect the cutting-edge state of our technology.

Head over to the site to see the latest changes, explore our demos, and dive deeper into our ecosystem.

6. OneClick Portal: Advancing Commercial Readiness

June saw heavy focus on our OneClick portal, gearing it up for commercial launch:

Stripe Integration Completion: Full payment integration with Stripe is now ready, enabling seamless transactions for our subscription-based services. Backup and Security Features: We’ve implemented automatic data backups for clients, along with password recovery, email confirmation, and alert systems to ensure data integrity and user convenience. High Availability Prep: Systems are now optimized for reliable, outage-resistant operation, supporting a growing user base. Log Viewing Overhaul: The log display system now offers advanced filtering options, pagination, and categorization, providing deeper insights into service performance.

These enhancements make OneClick a production-ready hub for managing decentralized identity services effortlessly.

7. Wallet and Hub Updates

We’ve addressed key areas in our wallet and hub to improve usability and functionality:

Wallet Fixes: Various UX improvements and bug fixes have been applied, alongside enhanced data backup processes for better user experience. Hub Faucet Addition: A new faucet feature requires credential-based login, adding security while simplifying access to test resources.

These updates make our tools more intuitive and secure for testing and development.

June has been a month of consolidation and forward-thinking enhancements, solidifying our decentralized identity solutions for privacy, ease of use, and commercial potential.

We’re excited about the path ahead and appreciate your ongoing engagement. Watch for more innovations in July!

Last Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law. Lauded as the first legislation to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, Trump’s bill has drawn strong criticism from some U.S. lawmakers and members of the crypto community.

United States Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene voiced concerns that the GENIUS bill, while presented as a framework for privately issued crypto tokens, effectively creates a pathway for a government-controlled digital currency. She said in an X post:

“This bill regulates stablecoins and provides for the backdoor central bank digital currency. The Federal Reserve has been planning a CBDC for years, and this will open the door to move you to a cashless society and into digital currency that can be weaponized against you by an authoritarian government controlling your ability to buy and sell.”

These sentiments are echoed within the broader crypto community, where there’s a growing apprehension that privately issued stablecoins could become subject to state control. Bitcoin advocate Justin Bechler stated that the “Genius Act forces stablecoins into CBDC compliance and control; functionally identical to a CBDC, without the scary name.”

Jean Rausis, co-founder of Smardex, a decentralized trading platform, also noted that governments recognizing their control over stablecoins inherently gain control over financial transactions. He highlighted that the ability to freeze or rollback transactions and surveil centrally-managed stablecoins makes them similar to CBDCs.

The GENIUS bill underwent amendments in March to include stricter anti-money laundering provisions, sanctions compliance, and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. These additions necessitate financial surveillance and the potential for transaction censorship, further fueling concerns among critics.

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

Lawmaker Slams ‘GENIUS Bill’ as Surveillance Nightmare in Disguise was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A whale's purchase of $6 million in CryptoPunks NFTs sent digital art prices rising across the board.

Is AI the Fourth Pillar of Infrastructure?

Infrastructure doesn’t go away — it layers. And today, AI is emerging as a new foundational layer alongside compute, storage, and networking.

Erik Torenberg interviews a16z’s Martin Casado, Jennifer Li, and Matt Bornstein breaking down how infrastructure is evolving in the age of AI — from models and agents to developer tools and shifting user behavior.

We dive into what infra actually means today, how it differs from enterprise, and why software itself is being disrupted. Plus, we explore the rise of technical users as buyers, what makes infra companies defensible, and how past waves — from the cloud to COVID to AI — are reshaping how we build and invest.

 

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction 

(01:49) Defining Infrastructure in the AI Era

(03:15) The Fourth Pillar: AI's Role in Infrastructure

(06:01) Historical Context and Evolution of Infrastructure

(08:20) The Impact of AI on Software Development

(10:18) Investment Strategies and Market Dynamics

(17:02) Developer Tools and AI Integration

(20:57) Defensibility in the AI Landscape

(22:16) Founders' Intuition and Industry Progress

(22:26) Defensibility in AI Infrastructure

(24:00) Expansion and Contraction Phases in the Industry

(24:35) The Role of Layers in Market Consolidation

(27:43) The Future of AI Models and Specialization

(29:27) The Decade of AI Agents

(29:54) Context Engineering and New Infrastructure

(34:23) The Evolution of Software Development

(42:13) Horizontal vs. Vertical Integration in AI

(43:54) Conclusion and Final Thoughts

 

Resources: 

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

Find Jennifer on X: https://x.com/JenniferHli

Find Matt on X: https://x.com/BornsteinMatt

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

Confidential computing can safeguard your data and reclaim privacy from surveillance‑driven AI.

The Trump-backed crypto startup plans to unlock the token fully within 6–8 weeks.

The surge follows GENIUS Act passage, Base app rebrand, and pro-crypto momentum.

Metaversal Weekly Recap: Coinbase Wallet evolves, Fantasy migrates to Base.

It's not just ETH treasury companies catching bids.

The fast-moving ETH treasury play now holds 120,306 ETH after a $67 million raise.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (July 11th, 2025 — July 17th, 2025)

Your weekly PIVX digest is here, with the latest market actions and important community updates.

Top Stories

Private Chats Just Got Real: Get ready, privacy pals! Vector Private Messenger is officially launching. Expect super-secure, lightning-fast chats with end-to-end encryption, and zero ads or tracking. Additionally, it cleverly utilizes your PIVX wallet as your digital identity and is compatible with Android, Windows, and macOS. Be an early bird, score a “Beta Badge,” and join the private party!

Market Pulse Masternode Count: The PIVX network saw a slight dip in active masternodes this week. Currently, 1,981 masternodes are online, a small decrease from last week’s count of 1,998. Price Check: The PIVX market experienced a period of consolidation this week, with its Daily USD Value largely trading sideways around the $0.15 mark. Consequently, the weekly USD average showed a healthy uptick, climbing to $0.1474 from the prior week’s $0.1326. Trading Buzz: PIVX’s trading activity saw a cool-down this week, unable to sustain the massive spike from last week. While the total Weekly Trading Volume settled at $21.8 million, down from last week’s $61.4 million, daily trading remained robust, consistently surpassing the $2 million mark.

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

PIVX Weekly Pulse (July 11th, 2025 — July 17th, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today we’re sharing an episode from American Optimist featuring Marc Andreessen in conversation with Joe Lonsdale, recorded live at the inaugural Ronald Reagan Economic Forum.

They explore one of the most urgent and complex questions of our time: Can AI and robotics catalyze a new era of American industrial strength—and how do we ensure the entire country, including rural communities, shares in the upside?

Marc walks through the history of U.S. industrialization, the lessons of tariffs and trade from leaders like McKinley, and how America’s shift to a services-based economy helped fuel our current urban-rural divide. The conversation spans immigration policy, housing, education, energy, and the path to a true AI-powered manufacturing revival—touching on what needs to change and how.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone thinking about the future of American productivity, growth, and leadership in the age of AI.

 

Resources:  

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

Follow Joe on X: https://x.com/jtlonsdale

You can find his writings here: https://blog.joelonsdale.com/

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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

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.

‘Attention Is All You Need’, co-wrote by Illia Polosukhin in 2017, laid the foundation for arguably one of the most consequential tech breakthroughs in our recent history. 1 year later, Illia founded Near AI, which later became Near Protocol. They were visionaries ahead of their time and, although AI took several more years before becoming a viable product, the experience of scaling databases would later prove valuable and applicable in blockchain world. As a result, Near Protocol aims to become the infrastructure layer for AI apps and the agentic economy. In order to achieve this, scaling was paramount, thus Near is one of the first blockchains to implement execution layer sharding, asynchronous execution and stateless validation, which brought the finality time down to 1.2 seconds, with a block time of 0.6 seconds.

Topics covered in this episode:

Bowen’s background Near’s pivot from AI to blockchains The role of Near One Near’s tech stack upgrades Optimizing network architecture Stateless validation & block propagation Sharding & asynchronous execution Message passing between shards & shard ‘equality’ Challenges of implementing stateless validation Applications benefiting from Near’s finality speed Intent-based infrastructure AI use cases on Near Expanding Near’s ecosystem Development challenges Near’s vision and goals

Episode links:

Bowen Wang on X Near One Near on X

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 Chorus One: one of the largest node operators worldwide, trusted by 175,000+ accounts across more than 60 networks, Chorus One combines institutional-grade security with the highest yields at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

The historic stablecoin regulation has passed the House and moves next to the President’s desk.

Following the successful launch of the Limited Mainnet Beta (Canary network) earlier this year and the recent completion of the Testnet airdrop, we are pleased to provide an update on the progress made with the Limited Mainnet Beta, specifically about the rewards distribution and network traction. Let’s dive in!

Recap of the recent weeks of testing 

Over the last few weeks, several improvements have been made to the Limited Mainnet Beta, including enhancements to the wallet engine synchronization process and faster transaction processing times. There are nearly 3,000 testers who have tried out the functionalities of Panther’s Limited Mainnet Beta network, and over 4 million in $ZKP rewards have been issued since the network’s launch. Hundreds of swaps have been successfully executed through Panther’s zSwap, which allows confidential trading on Quickswap, Uniswap and Curve. 

What’s next

When it comes to development, the focus is currently on minimizing blockchain requests and resolving some issues with the Limited Mainnet Beta history page, so that transaction records are displayed correctly. There is also an ongoing focus on improving synchronization to track network issues and states more efficiently. We would like to thank all testers for their feedback and efforts thus far and encourage everyone to continue testing, providing feedback, and spreading awareness about Panther Protocol’s solutions and functionalities. We are very excited about the progress that has been made, and this would not have been possible without the community’s support. 

Conclusion

The Panther ecosystem is preparing for mainnet launch. The Panther DAO is making significant progress through a series of ongoing discussions and DAO proposals. Panther’s Limited Mainnet Beta is progressing and improving towards a battle-tested version that aims to be mainnet-worthy. For the current testers, try out Panther Protocol’s Limited Mainnet Beta latest version through this link, and follow Panther on X, Discord, and Telegram to stay updated while we progress. We are also working on increasing sign-ups for new testers, so keep an eye out for updates on Panther’s socials. 

About Panther Protocol Foundation

Panther Protocol Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the growth, sustainability, and responsible use of Panther Protocol. While it does not operate the protocol or facilitate digital asset services, the Foundation plays a critical role in promoting adoption, supporting open-source development, advancing research, and raising awareness around the protocol’s core privacy-preserving technologies.

By empowering users, developers, and permissioned actors within DeFi and web3, the Foundation contributes to building a more secure and confidential digital future.

For more information, visit www.panther.org.

To learn more about Panther Protocol, visit www.pantherprotocol.io.

Contact

Panther Protocol Foundation

📧 Email: general@panther.org

🌐 Website: www.panther.org

The Peter Thiel-backed miner led by Tom Lee is currently the top institutional holder of ETH.

The rebranded mobile wallet merges on‑chain finance, social networking, and AI tools

ETH is the next institutional asset.

ETH's 11% pump has taken the asset as high as $3,422 today.

Tracking the network's next major upgrades with Forkcast.

Exploring Farcaster mini apps that are turning likes into onchain tips.

The major U.S. bank is preparing for a digital dollar launch pending legislation

Reflection AI Launches Asimov: Breakthrough Agent for Code Comprehension

Reflection AI’s first product milestone.

By Stephanie Zhan and Charlie Curnin Published July 16, 2025

What if you could have Jeff Dean on your team? Exceptional technical prowess, broad systems thinking, deep tribal knowledge, the best leader and mentor, and a truly reliable backbone for your team.

Today, Reflection AI is excited to launch Asimov: the best research agent for code understanding. Think: Deep Research for code comprehension. Superintelligent just like Jeff Dean would be on your team. 

The most impactful opportunity isn’t simply in code generation; it’s in code comprehension. Engineers spend a minority of time writing code, but the majority of time understanding and designing code. It’s the time spent parsing through complex codebases, doing whiteboard sessions with colleagues, searching through threads in Slack and Linear, rabbit hole-ing down questions inside Cursor, Windsurf, ChatGPT, and Stack Overflow.

The true unlock for engineering teams? Deeply understanding complex codebases and the business logic around them.

What if Asimov could unblock any engineer on your team with the tribal wisdom otherwise stored in that one senior architect’s mind? What if Asimov could evolve with the most omniscient and real-time memory of your team? 

Asimov is already the best-in-class agent for code comprehension. In a blind testing with maintainers of some of the largest OSS projects, Asimov’s answers were preferred a majority of time relative to Cursor Ask and Claude Code (Sonnet 3.7 and 4).

How?

1. Asimov builds a single source of truth for engineering knowledge

Asimov sees everything. It ingests entire codebases, architecture docs, GitHub threads, chat history, and more. It builds persistent memory of your systems, remembers key decisions, and acts as a trusted brain for an engineering organization.

2. Asimov captures team-wide tribal knowledge

While other products focus on individual developer preferences through rules or README files with instructions for agents, Asimov Memories enable engineering teams to capture team-wide tribal knowledge. 

Engineers can update Asimov’s knowledge, e.g. “@asimov remember X works in Y way.” This allows the most senior engineers to offload the context stored in their heads to Asimov, which benefits the team at large. Memories come with a permissioned role-based access control system to allow an organization to control who can edit Asimov’s knowledge.

3. Asimov is designed to ingest a lot of information

Asimov uses a multi-agent architecture to achieve state-of-the-art performance on code comprehension. The architecture consists of many small long context agents (retrievers) that retrieve relevant information from a large codebase and one large short-context reasoning agent (combiner) that synthesizes this information into a coherent answer to the user query. This design is similar in spirit to other frontier agentic research architectures but applied to the problem of code understanding. The current release of Asimov is powered by third-party models, but we are actively training our own models to improve Asimov’s performance.

The results speak for themselves. 

As Reflection incorporates its own frontier models over time, I’m bullish it will only further enable Asimov to become the most powerful code comprehension agent available.  

One of my core deep beliefs (h/t Misha & Ioannis) is that the best products are built by those who build both model intelligence and end application, coupled together. We see this playing out already in other domains—Deep Research, trained with end-to-end RL for market research, and Codex and Claude Code, trained with end-to-end RL for code generation. 

Our belief in Reflection AI reflects our conviction in the same approach: a new frontier lab has come to town, coupling model intelligence (results coming soon!) with end product application, building the most powerful coding agents on the path to superintelligence. 

Asimov, the best-in-class research agent for code comprehension, is our first step on that path. 

Give Asimov a try to accelerate your own engineering teams! And stay tuned for more.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI Reflection AI: The Race to Unlock Superintelligence Spotlight Read AI Ascent 2025 Video highlights from our AI conference. Perspective Read Partnering with Reflection By Stephanie Zhan and Charlie Curnin News Read Generative AI’s Act o1 by Sonya Huang, Pat Grady, and o1 Perspective 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 Reflection AI Asimov appeared first on Sequoia Capital.

Imagine using a Bitcoin ATM only to find out one year later that your sensitive data was stolen in a major breach. Well, this is the shocking reality for over 26,000 individuals whose personal information was compromised in a data breach at Bitcoin Depot, a leading cryptocurrency ATM operator. But what could possibly go wrong?

The breach, which saw names, phone numbers, addresses, emails, and even driver’s license numbers stolen, occurred a full year before the victims were notified. Although Bitcoin Depot claimed it concluded its internal investigation in July 2024, it was not until July 2025 that affected customers learned their data had been exposed. The reason for the delay? An unnamed federal law enforcement agency only recently concluded its own inquiry into the incident.

This alarming timeline leaves many questioning the transparency and accountability of companies handling sensitive user data in the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency space. While Bitcoin Depot stated that Social Security numbers were not compromised, thereby negating the need for identity theft protections, the sheer volume and nature of the stolen information still pose a significant risk to those affected. The stolen data is more than sufficient for sophisticated phishing attacks, account takeovers, and other forms of digital fraud.

The irony of the situation lies in the role of KYC. To comply with anti-money laundering (AML) laws and enhance financial transparency, cryptocurrency platforms and services are mandated to collect extensive personal data from their users.

While intended to prevent fraud and illegal activities, KYC centralizes a treasure trove of information. For malicious actors, these centralized databases become high-value targets. In the case of Bitcoin Depot, the very data points collected for regulatory compliance became the assets that were compromised, turning a security measure into a point of exposure.

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

Bitcoin ATM Users Left in the Dark for a Year After Data Breach was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The tech billionaire's bet underscores bullishness around Ethereum-centered treasury companies.

U.S. per capita energy usage peaked in 1973. Since then? Flat. Meanwhile, China’s per capita energy use has grown 9x.

Today, AI, EVs, manufacturing, and data centers are driving demand for more electricity than ever—and our grid can’t keep up.

In this episode, a16z general partners David Ulevitch and Erin Price-Wright, along with investing partner Ryan McEntush from the American Dynamism team, join us to unpack:

– How America’s grid fell behind

– Why we "forgot how to build" power infrastructure

– The role of batteries, solar, nuclear, and software in reshaping the grid

– How AI is both stressing and helping the system

– What it’ll take to build a more resilient, decentralized, and dynamic energy future

Whether you’re a founder, policymaker, or just someone who wants their lights to stay on, this conversation covers what’s broken—and how to fix it.

Resources: 

Find David on X: https://x.com/davidu

Find Erin on X: https://x.com/espricewright

Find Ryan on X: https://x.com/rmcentush

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction

01:05 Challenges and Solutions for Modernizing the Grid 

01:56 Decentralized Energy and Technological Innovations 

02:34 Grid Capacity and Transformer Issues 

04:10 The Role of AI and Software in Energy Management 

04:55 Policy and Workforce Challenges 

08:44 Texas vs. New York: A Tale of Two Grids 

10:31 The Importance of Battery Technology 

13:11 Balancing Energy Sources: Solar, Nuclear, and More 

14:54 The Future of Energy Consumption and Grid Management 

19:45 Wind Power: The Forgotten Energy Source 

20:53 Challenges in Grid Monitoring and Communication 

22:19 Load Forecasting and Weather Impact 

23:49 Nuclear Energy: Current State and Future Prospects 

26:44 Small Modular Reactors and Micro Reactors 

30:55 Technological Innovations in Grid Management 

35:41 The Role of AI in Regulatory Processes 

41:39 National Security and the Electrical Grid

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

San Francisco, CA – July 16, 2025 – Brave Software, a leading provider of privacy-preserving browser, search engine, and productivity tools, today announced the availability of the Brave Search API in the new AI Agents and Tools category of AWS Marketplace. Customers can now use AWS Marketplace to easily discover, buy, and deploy AI agents solutions, including Brave’s Search API, using their AWS accounts, accelerating agent and agentic workflow development.

The Brave Search API helps organizations supply their AI LLMs with real-time data, power agentic search, train foundation models, and create search-enabled software, and is for building applications that benefit from having access to the Web, going beyond the static knowledge of AI models. This enables customers to deploy their products with Web data that is fresh, reliable, and relevant, and offer the speed and reliability necessary for applications with millions of users around the world. With this release, anyone will be able to empower their agentic AI efforts with search capabilities without leaving their AWS accounts.

“By offering the Brave Search API in AWS Marketplace, we’re providing customers with a streamlined way to access the only independent search API in the market, helping them buy and deploy agent solutions faster and more efficiently,” said Brian Brown, Chief Business Officer at Brave Software. “Our customers in foundation models, search engines, and publishing are already using these capabilities to power their chatbots, search grounding, and research tools, demonstrating the real-world value of the only commercially-available search engine API at the scale of the global Web. The Brave Search API currently supplies most of the top 10 AI LLMs with real-time Web search data, and for some of them, Brave is in fact the only search engine index supporting their AI answers.”

The Brave Search API delivers essential capabilities including world-class search engine features based on our own independent index of the Web, packaged with our own ranking models, alongside specialized endpoints to adapt results, such as local results, images, and AI summaries, as well as up to five snippets from over 30 billion pages, picked in real time to maximize contextual relevance to a search.

These features enable customers to access a rare data source: the search index of one of just three independent search engines at scale, and to benefit from its real-time nature grounded by over 100 million daily page updates. Brave offers customers a comprehensive solution, unlike competing options that provide smaller indexes, merely scrape the Web, suffer from high latencies, or are even at risk of being shut down due to their dependencies on third parties.

With the availability of AI Agents and Tools in AWS Marketplace, customers can significantly accelerate their procurement process to drive AI innovation, reducing the time needed for vendor evaluations and complex negotiations. With centralized purchasing using AWS accounts, customers maintain visibility and control over licensing, payments, and access through AWS.

Available as an API and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore container solution for deployment, the Brave Search API supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for standardized use by LLMs. This enables customers to flexibly deploy agentic Web search within their AWS environment.

To learn more about the Brave Search API in AWS Marketplace, visit https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-qjlabherxghtq. To learn more about the new Agents and Tools category in AWS Marketplace, visit http://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/solutions/ai-agents-and-tools/.

About Brave Software

Brave Software provides a suite of tools—including the Brave browser and Brave Search—with industry-leading privacy and security protections. Brave Search is the fastest growing independent search engine since Bing and is the default search engine for most new users of the Brave browser, which now has over 90 million users. Brave Search offers a Search API so that other companies can power their search and AI apps. The Brave Search API is currently the single source of real-time data for some of the biggest AI LLMs.

For more information, visit brave.com or follow the company on X @brave.

Ethereum's Q2 shows a network in transition with more and more institutions ready to take the plunge.

The public gaming company is now host to the world's largest ETH treasury.

Crypto's biggest privacy battle heats up as Storm faces accusations in a Manhattan courtroom.

You’ll have to give it to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs). They are the default entry point for millions into the world of digital assets. They offer user-friendly interfaces, high liquidity, and familiar trading experiences that mimic traditional financial institutions.

However, this centralization is a stark contrast to the decentralized ethos of cryptocurrencies, and it introduces significant dangers to your financial privacy. CEXs collect, store, and control vast amounts of user data, creating multiple points of vulnerability. So, here are five dangers of centralized exchange for your financial privacy.

1. The Data Collection Mandate

The most immediate and pervasive threat to financial privacy on centralized exchanges comes from Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. These global mandates, while aimed at preventing illicit financial activities like terrorism financing and fraud, compel CEXs to gather extensive personal data from their users. For instance, the EU Travel Rule mandates that crypto transactions include originator and beneficiary information such as full legal names, as well as wallet and residential addresses.

When you sign up for a centralized exchange, you are typically required to surrender a considerable amount of personally identifiable information (PII), including government-issued ids such as passports, national ID cards, or driver’s licenses, selfie images, your full legal name, residential address, phone number, and bank account details for fiat deposits and withdrawals.

CEXs also routinely collect your IP address, device, and detailed activity logs, including login times and transaction patterns.

2. The Erosion of Privacy Through KYC/AML

It may not seem like it, but the ongoing wave of KYC requirements on centralized exchanges actually erodes privacy. I remember when all you needed to create an account on Binance was your email address, but those days are long gone. The pseudonymous nature of many cryptocurrencies, which allows transactions to occur without directly linking to a real-world identity, is nullified. Your crypto activities on a CEX are inextricably tied to your legal identity, creating a traceable financial footprint.

Regulatory frameworks often mandate that exchanges retain your KYC data for several years, even if you close your account. This means your sensitive information remains vulnerable to breaches for an extended period, long after you’ve ceased using the service. Furthermore, CEXs are legally obligated to comply with requests from government agencies, law enforcement, and regulatory bodies. This means your personal and transaction data can be shared without your explicit consent, turning your financial activities into a subject of potential surveillance or investigation.

The final argument in this regard is that all the sensitive personal and financial data you provide is consolidated and stored in the exchange’s centralized databases. This makes them highly attractive targets for cybercriminals seeking large caches of PII.

3. Financial Surveillance

With your real identity permanently linked to your exchange account and every transaction conducted on the platform meticulously logged, centralized exchanges become powerful conduits for financial surveillance. Governments and various agencies can leverage this data to monitor your complete transaction history. Every single deposit, withdrawal, trade, conversion, and even failed login attempt is recorded. This creates an exhaustive financial dossier of your cryptocurrency dealings.

Many CEXs collaborate with blockchain analytics firms to trace the movement of funds across various public blockchains. This sophisticated tracking can link your on-chain activities to your real-world identity.

Based on your registered location or perceived risk, exchanges can impose restrictions on your access to services, limit transaction volumes, or even ban you entirely. This is a critical lack of true financial freedom and resilience against external control.

4. Risk of Data Breaches and Hacks

The history of the cryptocurrency industry is replete with high-profile hacks and data breaches that have led to billions of dollars in losses and the widespread exposure of personal information.

While not directly a privacy concern, CEXs act as custodians of your funds, meaning they hold your private keys. If the exchange is hacked, your funds can be stolen. Past incidents like Mt. Gox, Bitfinex, and more recently, FTX, serve as stark reminders of this risk.

Even if user funds are not stolen in a breach, the exposure of PII (names, addresses, ID documents, email addresses, phone numbers) can have devastating privacy consequences. This exposed data can be leveraged for identity theft, phishing attacks, doxxing and harassment, and insider threats.

Despite substantial investments in security measures, such as cold storage for funds, multi-factor authentication (MFA), regular security audits, and bug bounty programs, no centralized system is entirely immune to sophisticated attacks. The fundamental issue remains: by using a CEX, you delegate control over your digital assets and, crucially, your personal data, to a third party whose security practices you must implicitly trust.

5. Loss of Autonomy and Counterparty Risk

Beyond direct privacy compromises and security vulnerabilities, relying on a centralized exchange means subjecting yourself to its operational policies, terms of service, and solvency. You are probably familiar with the “Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto” mantra. This means your funds are not truly yours in a self-sovereign sense. Should the exchange face bankruptcy, regulatory shutdown, or significant operational failures, your ability to access or retrieve your funds may be severely hampered or permanently lost.

CEXs can, and frequently do, freeze user accounts or restrict withdrawals without prior warning or detailed explanation. This can be due to regulatory pressure, suspected “suspicious activity” (which can be broadly interpreted), or internal policy changes. And of course, these exchanges can unilaterally modify their terms of service, privacy policies, or fee structures without your explicit consent beyond your initial agreement.

Exploring Alternatives for Greater Privacy Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): These platforms facilitate peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading directly from your self-custodied wallet. DEXs generally do not require KYC, meaning you retain control of your private keys throughout the trading process. While they may have different liquidity profiles and user interfaces, they significantly reduce counterparty risk and privacy exposure. Self-Custody Wallets: Storing your cryptocurrency in a self-custody wallet (e.g., a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor, or a non-custodial software wallet like MetaMask) means you hold the private keys. This gives you absolute control over your funds and ensures they are not subject to the risks of exchange hacks, freezes, or insolvency. Privacy-Enhancing Cryptocurrencies (Privacy Coins): Cryptocurrencies like PIVX are specifically designed with privacy features that obfuscate transaction details (sender, receiver, amount), making them significantly more difficult to trace on the public blockchain. Minimizing On-Exchange Balances: If using a CEX is necessary, adopt a strategy of holding only the minimum amount of funds required for active trading. Withdraw larger balances to your self-custody wallet as soon as possible.

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

5 Dangers of Centralized Exchanges for Your Financial Privacy was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

'Crypto Week' rally pushes public exchange into elite market-cap club.

Exploring 3DNS, the onchain registrar turning traditional .coms into liquid NFT assets.

Central Bank examines allocating seized and state-mined crypto into national reserves

The storied crypto asset manager quietly files to go public amid listing boom,

Where do today's tokenized stocks fall short?

The post Introducing Cogent: AI Agents for Vulnerability Management appeared first on Greylock.

In this episode, a16z General Partner Martin Casado sits down with Box cofounder and CEO Aaron Levie to talk about how AI is changing not just software, but the structure and speed of work itself.

They unpack how enterprise adoption of AI is different from the consumer wave, why incumbents may be better positioned than people think, and how the role of the individual contributor is already shifting from executor to orchestrator. From vibe coding and agent UX to why startups should still go vertical, this is a candid, strategic  conversation about what it actually looks like to build and operate in an AI-native enterprise.

Aaron also shares how Box is using AI internally today, and what might happen when agents outnumber employees.

 

Resources: 

Find Aaron on X: https://x.com/levie

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

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

The memecoin factory's PUMP token sale sold out instantly amid Solana frenzy.

Metaversal Weekly Recap: Ethereum boosts apps, OpenSea acquires Rally.

Yes, go buy ETH. But there are other ways we're getting Ethereum exposure right now.

Clanker v4 unleashes customizable token launches with multi-pool liquidity, dynamic fees, anti-sniping measures, and more!

The memecoin launchpad makes its first acquisition, targeting wallet analytics and copy-trading features.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (July 4th, 2025 — July 10th, 2025)

Stay informed with your weekly PIVX digest, featuring the latest market trends and important community updates.

Top Stories Swipe Right on Privacy with PIVX & Cardstorm: PIVX has inked a brand-new partnership with Cardstorm.io, a gateway for spending crypto privately, instantly, and without the hassle of KYC, accounts, or banks. Imagine this: you can now effortlessly convert your PIVX into 6,000+ gift cards and prepaid cards for all your favourite retailers and services, all while maintaining the privacy you value. Earn While You Learn, CoincoursePro Beta is LIVE: coincoursePro’s “Learn to Earn” beta is officially live, offering an exciting new way to earn crypto simply by learning about it. Dive into bite-sized lessons on various blockchains and cryptocurrencies to gain valuable insights. Then, complete simple tasks to solidify your understanding and claim your well-deserved crypto rewards. Market Pulse Masternode Count: The PIVX network showed a slight rebound in the number of active masternodes this week. As of press time, a total of 1,998 masternodes were online, relative to last week’s count of 1,991. Price Check: PIVX experienced more positive price action this week, with its Daily USD Value ranging from $0.12 to $0.15. There were notable moments, too, as intra-day spikes hit $0.19 on Tuesday. Reflecting this upward trend, the weekly average climbed to $0.1326, up from $0.1261 last week. Trading Buzz: This week, PIVX experienced a massive surge in trading activity. While it began as a typical week, Tuesday saw significant spikes in trading volume, likely driven by growing conversations about privacy within the wider crypto market. Consequently, PIVX’s Weekly Trading Volume skyrocketed to $61.4 million, a dramatic increase from last week’s $18.5 million.

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

PIVX Weekly Pulse (July 4th, 2025 — July 10th, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The foundation offloads $30M in ETH to SharpLink Gaming, bolstering the firm's crypto treasury.

ETH hits a multi-month high amid surging institutional demand.

This week on the a16z Podcast, we're sharing a feed drop from Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu, featuring a wide-ranging conversation with a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz.

Artificial intelligence isn't just a tool — it's a tectonic shift. In this episode, Ben joins Tom to break down what AI really is (and isn't), where it's taking us, and why it matters. They dive into the historical parallels, the looming policy battles, and how innovation cycles have always created — not destroyed — opportunity.

From the future of work and education to the global AI race and the role of blockchain in preserving trust, Ben shares hard-won insights from decades at the forefront of technological disruption. It's a masterclass in long-term thinking for anyone building, investing, or navigating what's coming next.

Resources: 

Listen to more episodes of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu: https://link.chtbl.com/impacttheory

Watch full conversations on YouTube: youtube.com/tombilyeu
Follow Tom on Instagram: @tombilyeu

Learn more about Impact Theory: impacttheory.com

Timecodes: 

00:00 Introduction to Impact Theory with Ben Horowitz

01:12 The Disruptive Power of AI

02:01 Understanding AI and Its Implications

04:19 The Future of Jobs in an AI-Driven World

06:52 Human Intelligence vs. Artificial Intelligence

10:31 The Role of AI in Society

21:41 AI and the Future of Work

35:07 The AI Race: US vs. China

41:25 The Importance of Blockchain in an AI World

44:26 Government Regulation and Blockchain

45:16 The Need for Stablecoins

45:45 Energy Challenges and AI

49:53 Market Structure Bill and Token Regulation

53:51 Blockchain's Trust and Adoption

01:04:17 Elon Musk's Government Involvement

01:12:03 Historical Figures and Modern Parallels

01:18:41 AI and Creativity in Business

01:21:29 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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

Five tokens that have caught our eyes this month.

The post Voice Agents: Easy to Use,
Hard to Build appeared first on Greylock.

The crypto exchange and AI services startup are working to bring users more real-time crypto data services.

The TRON founder doubles down on his support for Trump-linked crypto assets.

Trump Media explores crypto rewards to power its growing subscription and fintech ecosystem.

Breaking down my EthCC talk on the three design archetypes that actually work.

The XRP-issued dollar token hits a major milestone as Ripple pursues a U.S. banking charter.

Warren warns that the GENIUS Act could allow companies like Meta and Tesla to bypass SEC regulations.

If you could build a new kind of NFT marketplace, how would you do it?

The tradition of Epicenter x Vitalik Buterin continued this year as well at EthCC[8], where we got the chance of picking his brain about recent research, interests and Ethereum Foundation’s direction going forward. Join us for a fascinating discussion on biotech and how Vitalik’s Shiba ended up funding it, the utility of blockchains in nowadays society and Vitalik’s view on the Ethereum ecosystem and the Foundation’s response to community requests.

Topics covered in this episode:

Vitalik’s current interests How Shiba Inu funded biotech research The Merge and its impact Vitalik’s motivation and view on blockchain utility Ethereum Foundation’s changes Is supporting ETH price important for EF? Are L2s incentively aligned with Ethereum L1? Native L2s The risk of quantum computers

Episode links:

Vitalik Buterin on X Ethereum on X Ethereum Foundation on X EthCC on X

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 Chorus One: one of the largest node operators worldwide, trusted by 175,000+ accounts across more than 60 networks, Chorus One combines institutional-grade security with the highest yields at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sebastien Couture.

The Solana memecoin platform is selling 15% of its supply starting July 12.

On this week’s episode of “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”, an IT worker has been nabbed in connection with a $100 million cyber theft. The crazy part? He allegedly sold his login credentials to hackers for a mere $2,700.

Brazilian police have arrested an IT employee for facilitating a theft exceeding $100 million from the nation’s instant payment system, PIX. The incident, which saw funds siphoned from at least six financial institutions, reinforces the critical vulnerabilities introduced by human error.

João Roque, an employee at C&M Software, a company integral to the PIX system’s operations, was taken into custody after admitting to selling his login details to hackers for approximately $2,700 in cash. According to police, Roque met the perpetrators at a bar, who then provided him with instructions on how to create additional accounts and enable remote access within the system, effectively granting them a backdoor into the sensitive financial infrastructure.

Authorities revealed that over 540 million Brazilian reais (more than $98.3 million) was stolen from at least one financial institution, with investigations ongoing into potential further losses from other banks.

The Central Bank has taken immediate action, restricting access to parts of C&M Software’s system. At the same time, police continue their search for at least four other individuals believed to be involved in the sophisticated operation. Approximately $49 million connected to the theft has reportedly been frozen. Cryptocurrency investigator ZachXBT is reportedly tracking some of the stolen funds, noting conversions into Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT.

The breach serves as a stark warning about the dangers of insider threats and the ripple effect of compromised credentials. Even with advanced cybersecurity safeguards in place, the weakest link often remains the human element.

Beyond the immediate financial impact, the theft raises serious concerns about data privacy and security. The compromised system handles sensitive transactional data, and any unauthorized access poses a significant risk to the privacy of individuals and financial institutions alike.

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

Sold for Scraps: How a $2,700 Sellout Caused Over $100 Million in Damages was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

a16z Crypto General Partners Ali Yahya, Arianna Simpson, and Erik Torenberg break down what’s actually working in crypto today - starting with the rise of stablecoins as a real-world payments layer. They discuss how stablecoins are being adopted by companies like Stripe and SpaceX, why regulatory shifts are opening new doors for crypto startups, and how AI and crypto are beginning to intersect.

They also cover:

The future of decentralized social networks Where Ethereum, Solana, and others stand today Misconceptions still holding the space back

A grounded conversation on what’s real, what’s hype, and where crypto’s finally finding traction.

Timecodes:

00:00 Introduction to Crypto and AI

00:16 The Rise of Stable Coins

00:40 Current State of Crypto

02:02 Deep Dive into Stable Coins

07:39 Institutional and Consumer Adoption

22:09 The Future of Crypto and AI

29:13 Misconceptions and Policy Changes

33:06 Smart Contract Platforms

36:14 Closing Thoughts

Resources: 

Find Ali on X: https://x.com/alive_eth

Find Arianna on X: 

https://x.com/AriannaSimpson

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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

The layoffs at Eigen Labs follow a $70M token sale to a16z.

Ethereum is winning. ETH investors still aren't. Here's how we fix that.

The gaming stock announced another buy, adding nearly $20 million to its ETH coffers.

IBIT cements its lead as the largest Bitcoin ETF amid surging institutional demand.

What Ethereum's builders were gabbing about in Cannes.

All eyes are on UMA voters as they decide the fate of one of Polymarket's most controversial markets to date.

The record-setting digital bank heist successfully targeted a banking infrastructure startup before draining reserve accounts.

The movement of $8B in BTC after 14 years of wallet dormancy triggered trader concern over the weekend.

In case you’ve not realized, there is a growing buzz around privacy in the Web3 space. Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expounded on the urgent need for robust privacy solutions, dubbing it “an important guarantor of decentralization.”

But let’s face it, the crypto landscape has been a battleground where innovation clashes with regulation. This conflict is especially pronounced for privacy-centric cryptocurrencies, which are viewed with suspicion and increasing scrutiny by governments worldwide. Here’s the burning question: “Can privacy coins truly resist government pressure, or are they destined to be curbed, controlled, or even eradicated?”

Two Sides of a Coin: The Government’s Stance

Privacy coins employ a variety of cryptographic methods to achieve anonymity. From Ring Signatures to Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Stealth Addresses, and Ring Confidential Transactions, proponents argue that privacy coins are essential tools for financial freedom. On the flip side, governments harbour significant concerns about privacy coins due to their potential for money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing, and sanction evasion.

Ironically, data confirms that these regulatory fears are not well-founded — cash is still the primary vehicle for money laundering, at least for now.

Notwithstanding, governments have adopted a multi-pronged approach in response to these concerns, including:

Delisting from Centralized Exchanges (CEXs): A common tactic is to pressure centralized cryptocurrency exchanges to delist privacy coins. Japan and South Korea have been particularly aggressive in this regard, with major exchanges like UPbit and OKEx delisting Monero, Dash, and Zcash. The EU is set to implement regulations from 2027 that will effectively ban the trading of privacy coins by regulated crypto-asset service providers. Sanctions and Enforcement Actions: The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) had in the past sanctioned crypto mixing services like Tornado Cash, making it illegal for U.S. citizens to use. This signals a broader intent to target tools that enable financial anonymity. Increased Reporting Requirements: Regulations like the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “Travel Rule” aim to extend oversight into crypto transactions, requiring Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to collect and transmit customer information for transactions above a certain threshold. Privacy coins, by design, make compliance with such rules challenging. New Regulatory Frameworks: Countries are developing and implementing comprehensive cryptocurrency regulations, often with explicit provisions addressing privacy-enhancing technologies. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, phasing in by 2025, is a prime example. How Privacy Coins and Their Communities Push Back

Despite the mounting pressure, privacy coins and their communities exhibit inherent characteristics and strategies that contribute to their resilience. First, the very design of privacy coins makes direct government control or shutdown extremely difficult. Their decentralized nature, combined with robust cryptography, means there’s no central entity to target or shut down. As long as the underlying network remains active, transactions can technically occur.

Secondly, as centralized exchanges delist privacy coins, users can migrate to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) or engage in peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, which are far more challenging for governments to monitor and regulate.

Meanwhile, privacy coin communities often emphasize the legitimate use cases for financial privacy, such as protecting personal financial data from surveillance, enhancing security against data breaches, and enabling transactions in oppressive regimes. They aim to raise awareness that privacy is not inherently linked to illicit activity.

The Interplay

The future of privacy coins will likely be shaped by a continuous interplay between governmental efforts to impose transparency and the inherent resistance mechanisms of these technologies. While delisting from major exchanges undoubtedly reduces the mainstream accessibility and liquidity of privacy coins, it does not eradicate their use. Those determined to maintain financial privacy will find alternative avenues, even if they are more cumbersome.

Governments are investing in advanced analytics and forensic tools to attempt to trace even privacy-enhanced transactions. While complete de-anonymization may be technically challenging, partial linkages or behavioural analysis could still pose a risk to users.

Some propose “hybrid” models where privacy coins might integrate optional transparency features or allow for selective disclosure under specific legal frameworks, such as for large transactions or at the point of entry/exit from regulated financial systems. Interestingly, optional privacy is already available on PIVX.

Conclusion

The question of whether privacy coins can resist government pressure does not have a simple “yes” or “no” answer. While governments possess significant power to influence their accessibility and public perception, the decentralized and technologically resilient nature of privacy coins makes their complete eradication highly improbable.

Instead, we will likely see a compromised coexistence. Privacy coins may become less prominent in regulated, mainstream financial channels, but their underlying networks will persist, serving those who prioritize financial anonymity, whether for legitimate reasons or otherwise.

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

Can Privacy Coins Resist Government Pressure? was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why release a transparency report? Electric Coin Co. (ECC) is committed to openness and transparency — as we help evolve and support the Zcash digital currency, and in support of […]

Source

"Fiat is hopeless," the former DOGE chief told a supporter on X.

On this episode, taken from The Ben & Marc Show, a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz dive deep into the unfiltered story behind the founding of Andreessen Horowitz—and how they set out to reinvent venture capital itself. 

For the first time, Marc and Ben walk through the origins, strategy, and philosophy behind building a world-class venture capital firm designed for the future—not just the next fund. They reveal how they broke industry norms with a bold brand, a full-stack support model, and a long-term commitment to backing exceptional builders—anchored in the radical idea that founders deserved real support, not just checks. 

Joining them to guide the conversation is Erik Torenberg—Andreessen Horowitz’s newest General Partner—who makes his Ben & Marc Show moderating debut. Erik is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and founder of the media company Turpentine.

Together, they explore: 

- Why traditional VC needed reinvention 

- How a16z scaled with a platform model, not a partner model 

- The "barbell strategy" reshaping venture capital today 

- Why venture remains a human craft, even in the age of AI 

Timecodes: 

00:00 - Intro 

01:00 - Why Traditional Venture Capital Was Broken 

03:05 - Marc on Discovering VC and Its Legends 

05:12 - Surviving the Dot-Com Crash and Angel Investing Collapse 

07:05 - Helping Founders Raise Venture / Fix VC Relationships 

08:47 - The a16z Strategy: Building a Support Platform 

12:07 - First Fund Wins: Skype, Instagram, Slack, Okta 

12:50 - Building a 'World-Dominating Monster' 15:00 - The Sushi Boat VC Problem 

18:07 - Treating LPs Differently 

21:40 - Marc and Ben's Working Relationship 

23:30 - Updating a16z’s Media Strategy for the Social Era 

27:20 - History of the Decentralized Media Environment

30:36 - Decline of Corporate Brands and Going Direct 

36:06 - Naming the Firm 

40:13 - Building the a16z 'Cinematic Universe' of Talent 

42:16 - Creating a Federated Model 

51:02 - Deciding to Market the Firm 

53:26 - Recruiting General Partners 

56:33 - Evolution to Full-Stack Companies 

01:03:53 - The Barbell Theory: The Death of Mid-Sized VCs

01:11:50 - Why Venture Capital Should Stay Overfunded 

01:19:50 - When a16z Knew It Could Be Top Tier 

01:25:58 - Venture Capital is an Art, Not a Science

Resources:

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

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

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

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

Erik's Substack: https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/

We at PIVX are proud to celebrate our Privacy Partners

Edge, Houdini, NOWNodes, and Coinomi innovative solutions strengthen our mission to champion #privacy and #FinancialFreedom. A huge Shout-out to Jeffrey our Business Development Lead, for securing these vital partnerships.

Together, we’re advancing #PIVX as the leading privacy-focused, Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrency powered by zk-SNARKs.

Here’s to continuing our quest for innovation and privacy!

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

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

Metaversal Weekly Recap: Azuki unveils an anime studio, Farcade rebrands.

Weekly Recap: Robinhood's RWA push, Trump's Big Beautiful Bill shocker

Our top early episodes chronicling humanity's most ambitious tech explorations.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (June 27th, 2025 — July 3rd, 2025)

Your weekly PIVX digest is here, packed with top market trends and important community updates.

Market Pulse Masternode Count: After hitting a new all-time high of 2,126, the number of active masternodes on the PIVX network has dropped to 1,991 this week. The decrease in masternode count may be attributed to a few key reasons. Some nodes could have temporarily disconnected, or perhaps operators are cashing in on recent price action. This shift ultimately points to a change in strategy or sentiment among masternode operators. Price Check: The Daily USD Value of PIV showed an encouraging trend this week, trading between $0.12 and $0.13. This positive movement was reflected in the weekly average, which rose to $0.1261, a significant bump from last week’s $0.1193. Trading Buzz: Amid the price recovery in the wider crypto market, PIVX saw heightened trading interest this week. The Weekly Trading Volume climbed to roughly $18.5 million, a solid increase from $16.5 million.

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

PIVX Weekly Pulse (June 27th, 2025 — July 3rd, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Taken from the AI + a16z podcast, Arcjet CEO David Mytton sits down with a16z partner Joel de la Garza to discuss the increasing complexity of managing who can access websites, and other web apps, and what they can do there. A primary challenge is determining whether automated traffic is coming from bad actors and troublesome bots, or perhaps AI agents trying to buy a product on behalf of a real customer.Joel and David dive into the challenge of analyzing every request without adding latency, and how faster inference at the edge opens up new possibilities for fraud prevention, content filtering, and even ad tech.Topics include:

Why traditional threat analysis won’t work for the AI-powered web The need for full-context security checks How to perform sub-second, cost-effective inference The wide range of potential actors and actions behind any given visit

As David puts it, lower inference costs are key to letting apps act on the full context window — everything you know about the user, the session, and your application.

 

Follow everyone on social media:

David Mytton

Joel de la Garza

Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.

 

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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. 

The promise of airdrops rewarding early adopters and building vibrant Web3 communities has been undermined by a persistent, costly crisis: bot manipulation.

In recent years, bots and Sybil attacks have consistently hijacked airdrop campaigns, draining rewards from real users and eroding trust across the ecosystem.

The Airdrop Bot Crisis

Airdrops are intended to reward genuine engagement and foster decentralized communities. Most projects rely on heuristic filters (activity patterns, wallet age, transaction volume), manual reviews from centralized teams and multiple snapshots or social media checks.

These methods are not only opaque and error-prone, but also exclude real users and fail to reliably block bots, who constantly adapt and exploit loopholes. It causes:

❌ Bots and Sybil attacks Automated scripts create thousands of fake accounts, often claiming majority of airdrop allocations. ❌ Real users lose out Bots outnumber real users by multiples, diluting rewards and undermining the value of community participation. ❌ Failed anti-bot measures and community trust erodes Last-minute disqualifications and unclear eligibility criteria have become common, damaging project reputations and discouraging real engagement Empeiria’s Solution: Verifiable Credentials (VCs)

Empeiria sets a new standard by making airdrop eligibility provable, transparent, and bot-proof through Verifiable Credentials (VCs).

How it works?

✅ Every participant must obtain a cryptographically signed Verifiable Credential. By scanning a QR code in the Empe DID Wallet app. ✅ No Verifiable Credential = no reward. No exceptions. This cryptographic proof cannot be faked or automated by bots. ✅ Rules are enforced by code, not centralized teams. Once you hold a valid VC in your Empe Wallet, your reward is guaranteed — no last-minute exclusions or arbitrary cuts. ✅ All qualifying actions are transparently recorded on-chain. Ensuring full auditability and fairness. Empeiria’s On-Chain Testnet Airdrop

Since launching its testnet in April 2024, Empeiria’s Layer-1 blockchain has processed over 1,000,000 transactions and is secured by 150 top-tier validators. Recognized as a top 5 transformative crypto project by OKX and piloted with leading institutions.

Join Empeiria’s On-Chain Testnet Airdrop: docs.empe.io/user-guide/airdrop/on-chain-testnet-airdrop

The new legislation mirrors the addition she sought for inclusion in Trump's mega spending bill earlier this week.

The five airdrop paydays to chase this month.

The TON developer raised $28.5M from Silicon Valley heavyweights Ribbit Capital and Pantera Capital.

Robinhood has clarified the tokens are 'derivatives' and don't represent equity stakes.

ENSv2 and Namechain are set to revolutionize the UX around onchain identity.

What if now is the best time in decades to start a company?

In this episode, taken from Speedrun, a16z’s accelerator for early-stage founders, Marc Andreessen joins games General Partner Jonathan Lai to make the case that we’re entering a once-in-a-generation window for innovation. From the rise of AI to the cultural and policy shifts reshaping the global economy, Marc explains why the next four years present a rare opportunity for builders to seize the moment.

Along the way, they discuss market timing, platform shifts, and what sets successful founders apart - including lessons from Steve Jobs, insights into AI’s impact on storytelling and games, and why being “too early” can feel just like being wrong.

Timecodes

0:00 Lessons from Steve Jobs on Leadership & Innovation

2:27 The AI Boom: How It’s Changing Everything

5:52 Market Timing: The #1 Factor in Startup Success

8:13 Why the Next 4 Years Are Critical for Tech

11:30 AI & The Future of Gaming, Storytelling & Virtual Worlds

14:28  Why Some Startups Fail While Others Explode

17:11  The Role of Founders in the AI Era

Resources: 

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

Find Jonathan on X: https://x.com/Tocelot

Stay Updated: 

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

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

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

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.

The post Gen AI Present and Future: A Conversation with Shamim Mohammad, EVP and Chief Information and Technology Officer at CarMax appeared first on Greylock.

Stripe has established itself as a leading payment solution for both enterprises as well as startups and individual sellers. By abstracting away all the complexities of traditional payment rails through simple plug-and-play APIs, Stripe created a facile route for cross-border payments, simplifying e-commerce. Similarly, Stripe’s recent integration of stablecoins could further bolster the adoption of decentralised payment solutions, be them USD or other currency proxies. This allows businesses to reach more markets, at a lower cost, with near-instantaneous settlement.

Topics covered in this episode:

John’s background Stripe’s mission How Stripe solves the complexity of internet payments Integrating crypto for payments Supported blockchains Stripe’s Web3 services Upsides of accepting stablecoin payments Non-USD stablecoins Merchant UX Expanding crypto support outside the U.S. On- and off-ramping Acquiring Bridge and Privy The best of both worlds: CeFi & DeFi

Episode links:

John Egan on X Stripe on X

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 Chorus One: one of the largest node operators worldwide, trusted by 175,000+ accounts across more than 60 networks, Chorus One combines institutional-grade security with the highest yields at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

Before Panther’s recent successful Limited Mainnet Beta launch, the Panther community tested the protocol components and functionalities through Panther’s testnet, which consisted of nine different testnet stages. We would like to extend our gratitude to all testers and their feedback, which helped us fulfill our mission of building tomorrow’s decentralized finance. Today, we share everything you need to know about the testnet airdrop and how you could claim your testnet rewards. Let´s dive in!

Panther’s testnet recap and reward allocation

For approximately one and a half years, testers tried out the protocol’s UTXO algorithm, reward mechanisms, relayers, swap functions, and more. In total, 1.7M $ZKP has been allocated to the testnet participants. Aside from stress-testing the infrastructure, the goal of the testnet was also to enhance the end-to-end functionality of the protocol before launching the Limited Mainnet Beta version, which is available for testing today. And now, these 1.7M $ZKP testnet rewards can be claimed.

Distribution/Claim details

Since the launch of the testnet, rewards have been allocated to users who have engaged with the protocol's functionalities. The testnet rewards can be claimed through Sablier, an onchain token distribution infrastructure. By searching for the ‘’Panther Testnet’’ in the search bar, testers can find the right airdrop program for this airdrop. Testers can check their eligibility by connecting their Rainbow, Metamask, or Coinbase wallet to the Sablier application. In total, there are 5203 addresses eligible for claiming their testnet rewards.

The airdrop contract was deployed on June 30, and the program continues until October 30, 2025, as shown on Polygoncan. Within these 121 days, testers can claim their rewards. 

To claim your testnet rewards, visit Sablier here: https://app.sablier.com/airdrops/campaign/0x4d4d8b839f8e3a9eb214c0dc5a1ebbea261acf2d-137/

By completing this airdrop, the Panther ecosystem is one step closer to its mainnet launch. Once again, a big thank you to all the participants. We will keep you posted on the progress as we progress towards a fully functional Panther Protocol. 

About Panther Protocol Foundation

Panther Protocol Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the growth, sustainability, and responsible use of Panther Protocol. While it does not operate the protocol or facilitate digital asset services, the Foundation plays a critical role in promoting adoption, supporting open-source development, advancing research, and raising awareness around the protocol’s core privacy-preserving technologies.

By empowering users, developers, and permissioned actors within DeFi and web3, the Foundation contributes to building a more secure and confidential digital future.

For more information, visit www.panther.org.

To learn more about Panther Protocol, visit www.pantherprotocol.io.

Building BAT Utility and Driving Adoption

Since launching in March, the Brave Rewards 3.0 Partner Program has steadily gained momentum. Designed to expand Basic Attention Token (BAT) utility across Web3, the program connects partners with Brave’s over 88 million monthly users through premium placements—including New Tab Takeovers and the new Rewards Offer Wall—and amplifies reach through co-marketing and community-driven initiatives.

This month, we’re sharing progress updates from our existing cohort of partners, highlighting how they’re leveraging BAT to power new experiences across decentralized identity, DeFi, fitness, gaming, the metaverse, sports, and more. From Brave Ads campaign performance to live activations and on-chain integrations, each milestone fuels BAT’s multichain expansion and real-world utility.

Highlights include:

Bandit supporting 20 Web3 projects in running self-hosted campaigns through Brave’s private advertising platform Brave and Ubisoft hosting a live community event on July 1 at EthCC in Cannes (Masters of pETHanque) and gameplay demos inside the Brave browser with the new Brave avatar skin  Over 6,200 .brave domains minted on Unstoppable Domains The debut of a new Brave-themed character mask in Decentraland Fanon and Brave working directly to launch Brave Games  A collaboration on an exclusive Brave merch capsule for the GolfN Pro Shop Over 225,000 BAT locked in GuanoCoin’s Cave for increased utility on Solana A new Brave Community Group on the Moonwalk Fitness app Updates from our Rewards 3.0 Program Partners Bandit’s Badchain 

Bandit’s Badchain launched a $1 million Growth Fund in June to accelerate Web3 adoption—starting with Brave. As part of the Rewards 3.0 Partner Program, Bandit will curate and deploy the fund to support 20 Web3 projects in running self-hosted campaigns through Brave’s private advertising platform, reaching millions of users worldwide. These campaigns will combine premium exposure via Brave Ads with Bandit’s proven growth tools, including quests, leaderboards, and NFT mints.

The initiative reflects a shared commitment to authentic growth; Bandit and Brave aim to help projects reach the next 50 million real users through meaningful, product-led engagement rather than chasing hype or vanity metrics. As Brave approaches 100 million users, the Growth Fund presents a powerful opportunity for Web3 builders to find early market fit within one of the most crypto-native audiences on the Web.

Decentraland 

On Friday, July 11, Brave and the BAT Community will host an immersive metaverse event in Decentraland, featuring the debut of a new Brave-themed character mask. The event will include a live presentation on Brave and BAT, followed by an interactive afterparty with a DJ and other community-led activities. Attendees who participate will be able to claim the exclusive Brave mask in-game.

Those interested can join the event directly through Decentraland using Brave Wallet or another Web3 wallet in the Brave browser. We recommend downloading the Decentraland app in advance to ensure the best experience. Additionally, follow @AttentionToken on X for announcements about the event time, location, and other details.

GolfN

Brave and GolfN are collaborating on an exclusive merch capsule for the GolfN Pro Shop, featuring custom Brave golf towels, golf tees, and ball markers, introducing new sports and lifestyle-oriented utility for BAT. Fans will be able to purchase items using BAT, as well as other cryptocurrencies or credit cards. A dedicated banner in the Brave Merch Store will guide users directly to GolfN’s storefront.

This upcoming drop marks the next step in an ongoing partnership focused on bridging rewards and recreation, both on the green and beyond. 

GuanoCoin

Since joining the Rewards 3.0 Partner Program in March, GuanoCoin’s Cave has grown to over 225,000 BAT locked, a milestone that reflects rising community participation and long-term belief in the BAT ecosystem. By locking BAT in the Cave, fans help reduce the circulating supply and reinforce BAT’s utility on Solana, all while earning GUANO rewards.

Born from within the BAT Community, GuanoCoin continues to deliver creative, community-first ways to engage with BAT on-chain. Follow @Guanocoin for exciting quests and ecosystem experiments emerging from the Cave.

Moonwalk Fitness

Brave recently joined Moonwalk Fitness’s new Communities feature, a social layer within the Moonwalk app that makes movement more interactive, connected, and habit-forming. Communities foster accountability and shared goals by bringing together users based on their interests, location, or the type of challenge they face.

The new Brave community group offers a dedicated space where Rewards users and BAT holders can access exclusive invite-only games, share updates, and participate in group step challenges. Fans can join by downloading the Moonwalk Fitness app on iOS or Android and searching for Brave’s community.

In May, Brave sponsored Moonwalk’s Accelerate Impact, a charity step challenge which raised over $64,000 to benefit BONK’s Bonk for Paws initiative. Building on that success, Brave and Moonwalk plan to launch additional challenges, some supporting charitable causes, others offering BAT-powered rewards for users who hit their daily step goals.

Pudgy Pop, Fanon, & Brave Games

As part of our ongoing partnership, Brave previously teamed up with Pudgy Pop to explore new ways of engaging users through socially driven, gamified campaigns. Based on the strong community response to those experiences, built on Fanon’s social gaming platform, Brave is now working directly with Fanon to launch Brave Games: a new series of interactive challenges designed to deepen visibility and engagement for Rewards 3.0 Partner Program campaigns. Pudgy Pop will also participate by rewarding top Brave Games players with collectible pins. 

Brave Games blends prediction mechanics, progressive “Squid Game”-style rounds, and social gameplay to transform passive questing into something far more dynamic. Instead of static checklists and inflated incentives, players stay engaged by making smart guesses, completing challenges, and outlasting the crowd.

Ubisoft

Brave and Ubisoft are bringing their collaboration to life at EthCC in Cannes with a live community event on July 1: Masters of pETHanque. (Register here.) At the event, they’ll co-host a dedicated space featuring Watch Dogs: DedSec gameplay demos inside the Brave browser and unveil the new Brave avatar skin in __ Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E., a community-driven adventure set in a dystopian world where players shape the narrative through collective decision-making. 

The custom Brave skin is a symbol of digital defiance, created for players who challenge the status quo and believe in reclaiming their agency—whether from Big Tech or fictional adversaries—values deeply shared by both Brave and Ubisoft. This experiential activation continues Ubisoft’s involvement in the Rewards 3.0 Partner Program, underscoring its commitment to delivering rich, meaningful experiences to Brave users and its broader gaming audience.

Preview of the custom Brave skin in Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E

Unstoppable Domains 

Interest in the new .brave on-chain top-level domain, launched last month in partnership with Unstoppable Domains, continues to grow. In just four weeks, over 6,200 .brave domains have been minted, each representing a piece of digital identity that lives fully on-chain. Fans can still claim theirs at get.unstoppabledomains.com/brave, using BAT, other cryptocurrencies, or a credit card.

In a recent episode of The Brave Technologist podcast, Unstoppable COO Sandy Carter and Brave’s Luke Mulks discussed what could be next for .brave: a potential application to become an official ICANN-registered domain. If approved, .brave would operate across both Web2 and Web3 infrastructure, making it the first digital identity asset to be fully on-chain and recognized within the traditional DNS system. That means .brave domains could eventually be used as standard website URLs, compatible across all browsers and apps, while remaining rooted in the decentralized web.

This partnership is a bold step toward bridging the worlds of Web2 and Web3, and underscores Brave’s broader mission to give users ownership over their online identity: on-chain, in the browser, and beyond.

How interested partners can get involved

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. Get in touch to learn more.

Stay tuned for more partner announcements and ways to engage with BAT.

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 88 million monthly active users. Learn more at brave.com and basicattentiontoken.org.

Catch up on previous posts in this series March April May