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The former bank regulator who invented deposit networks just revealed why SVB's collapse was inevitable—and why the solution that could have saved them is finally being rebuilt.
Gene Ludwig ran the OCC during the Clinton administration, created a half-trillion-dollar market solving a problem his Aunt Betty faced riding buses between banks, then watched his invention fail to save Silicon Valley Bank because the technology, economics, and incentives were fundamentally broken.
Now he's partnered with Paolo and ModernFi to build what could become America's eighth systemically important financial utility: a bank-owned consortium that's signing 25 institutions per week and racing to protect the 4.8 trillion in uninsured deposits that make the next crisis inevitable.
Resources:
Follow Gene on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gene-ludwig/
Follow Paolo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paolombertolotti/
Follow David on X: https://x.com/dhaber
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Today, Brave Leo offers a new capability for cryptographically-verifiable privacy and transparency by deploying LLMs with NEAR AI Nvidia-backed Trusted Execution Environments (aka “TEEs”, see “Know more about TEEs” section below for details). Brave believes that users must be able to verify that they are having private conversations with the model they expect. This is available in Brave Nightly (our testing and development channel) for early experimentation with DeepSeek V3.1 (we plan to extend this to more models in the future based on feedback).
By integrating Trusted Execution Environments, Brave Leo moves towards offering unmatched verifiable privacy and transparency in AI assistants, in effect transitioning from the “trust me bro” process to the privacy-by-design approach that Brave aspires to: “trust but verify”.
Brave believes in user-first AILeo is the Brave browser’s integrated, privacy-preserving AI assistant. It is powered by state-of-the-art LLMs while protecting user privacy through a privacy-preserving subscription model, no chats in the cloud, no context in the cloud, no IP address logging, and no training on users’ conversations.
Brave believes that users must be able to:
Verifiable Privacy—Users must be able to verify that Leo’s privacy guarantees match public privacy promises.
Verifiable Transparency in Model Selection—Users must be able to verify that Leo’s responses are, in fact, coming from a machine learning model the user expects (or pays for, in the case of Leo Premium).
The absence of these user-first features in other competing chatbot providers introduces a risk of privacy-washing. It has also been shown—both in research (e.g., “Are You Getting What You Pay For? Auditing Model Substitution in LLM APIs”) and in practice (e.g., backlash against ChatGPT)—that chatbot providers may have incentives to silently replace an expensive LLM with a cheaper-to-run, weaker LLM, and to return the results from the weaker model to the user in order to reduce GPU costs and increase profit margins.
Brave moves towards Verifiable Privacy and Transparency in LLMs through Confidential ComputingBrave begins this journey by removing the need to trust LLM/API providers, using Confidential LLM Computing on NEAR AI TEEs. Brave uses NEAR AI TEE-enabled Nvidia GPUs to ensure confidentiality and integrity by creating secure enclaves where data and code are processed with encryption.
These TEEs produce a cryptographic attestation report that includes measurements (hashes) of the loaded model and execution code. Such attestation reports can be cryptographically verified to gain absolute assurance that:
A secure environment is created through a genuine Nvidia GPU TEE, which generates cryptographic proofs of its integrity and configuration.
Inference runs in this secure environment with full encryption that keeps user data private — no one can see any data passed by the user to the computation, or any results of the computation.
The model and open source code that users expected are running unmodified by cryptographically signing every computation.
In Stage 1 of our development, Brave performs the cryptographic verification, and users can use “Verifiably Private with NEAR AI TEE” in Leo as follows:
User selects DeepSeek V3.1 with label of Verifiably Private with NEAR AI TEE available in Leo on Brave Nightly
Brave performs NEAR AI TEE Verification, validating a cryptographic chain from NEAR open-source code to hardware-attestation execution, ensuring responses are generated in a genuine Nvidia TEE running a specific version of the NEAR open-source server
Brave transmits the outcome of verification to users by showing a verified green label (depicted in the screenshot below)
User starts chatting without having to trust the API provider to see or log their data and responses
The future of Verifiable Privacy and Transparency in Brave LeoToday, we are excited to release TEE-based Confidential DeepSeek V3.1 Computing in Brave Nightly (our testing and development channel) for early experimentation and feedback.
Before rolling this out more broadly, we’re focused on two things:
No user-facing performance overhead—TEEs introduce some computational overhead on the GPU. However, recent advances significantly reduce this overhead—down to nearly zero in some cases—as shown in Confidential Computing on NVIDIA Hopper GPUs: A Performance Benchmark Study. We want to ensure our users don’t experience performance regressions.
End-to-end verification—We’re actively researching how to extend confidential computing in Leo so that users can verify their trust in the entire pipeline, along with Brave open-sourcing all stages. In particular, we are planning to move the verification closer to users so they can reconfirm the API verification on their own in the Brave browser.
More about Trusted Execution EnvironmentsA Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) is a secure area of a processor that provides an isolated computing environment, separate from traditional rich runtime environments such as an Operating System (OS). A TEE enforces strong hardware-backed guarantees of confidentiality and integrity for the code and data it hosts. These guarantees are achieved through enforcements such as dedicated memory that is accessible only to the TEE.
Hardware isolation ensures that even a fully compromised OS cannot access or tamper with any code or data residing inside the TEE. In addition to this, TEEs expose unique hardware primitives such as secure boot and remote attestation to ensure only trusted code is loaded into the TEE and so that external parties are able to verify the integrity of TEE.
Chip manufacturers have enabled TEEs on CPUs (traditionally) and GPUs (recently). The combination of TEE-enabled CPUs (e.g., Intel TDX) and TEE-enabled GPUs (e.g., Nvidia Hopper) enables end-to-end confidentiality, and integrity-preserving computation of LLM inference with minimal performance penalty.
The post Congrats, Chronosphere and Palo Alto Networks! appeared first on Greylock.
Speaking at Devcon, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin unveiled Kohaku, a new privacy-focused framework for the Ethereum ecosystem. He described the launch as entering the “very last mile stage” of development, where concerted effort is needed to enhance user privacy and security on the blockchain.
Kohaku is an open-source, modular suite of primitives that will allow developers to build privacy-preserving wallets and applications without reliance on centralized intermediaries. The framework is intended to establish default, opt-in privacy for Ethereum-connected wallets, thereby formalizing privacy as a fundamental user expectation.
This initiative, spearheaded by the Ethereum Foundation and other key stakeholders, marks a major step in the ongoing “privacy upgrade path” for the network.
The project currently serves as a work-in-progress on GitHub, incorporating software packages for protocols that enhance on-chain anonymity and security. Notably, the framework includes integrations for Railgun and Privacy Pools. The Ethereum boss has been quite vocal on his call for privacy in the crypto space. He said:
“Privacy is freedom. It gives us space to live our lives in the ways that meet our needs without having to constantly worry about how our actions will be perceived by all kinds of centralized and decentralized coercive political and social entities.”
Last month, the Foundation launched the Privacy Cluster, a 47-member team of cryptographers, engineers, and researchers dedicated to establishing privacy as a “first-class property” of Ethereum. Furthermore, the former Privacy & Scaling Explorations team rebranded to the Privacy Stewards of Ethereum in September, signifying a shift from speculative research to solving concrete, real-world privacy challenges, including confidential DeFi and private voting mechanisms.
Kohaku may also evolve to include tools like ZK-powered browsers and mixnets for network-level anonymity.
PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
Vitalik Buterin Joins Privacy Party, Unveils Kohaku was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Palmer Luckey got fired from Meta for backing the wrong candidate—now he's the hero saving American defense, and that shift tells you everything about how fast the ground moved beneath Silicon Valley's feet. For decades, tech and defense were allies, then came 15 years of hostility so visceral that Google employees revolted over a Pentagon AI contract, and when leadership caved, only three people showed up to hear what border security actually involves. But something broke: COVID exposed our inability to make things, Ukraine revealed wars now iterate in days not decades, and suddenly the Harvard dorm room generation realized the people building satellites and drones weren't just necessary—they were the future, while legacy defense contractors still operate on Soviet-style five-year plans that guarantee cost overruns and obsolescence. Now the question isn't whether Silicon Valley returns to its Cold War roots, but whether America wins by becoming more like China's centralized system or doubles down on the chaotic creativity that built nine of the world's ten most valuable companies in 25 years—and the founders flooding into defense, energy, mining, and manufacturing suggest the second American century is just getting started.
Resources:
Follow Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz
Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca
Follow Katherine on X: https://x.com/KTmBoyle
Follow David on X: https://x.com/davidu
Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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You’ve probably stumbled on tweets of people showing their crypto portfolio online. No doubt, most of these guys are just farming for engagement but a few are actually real. What do you think would happen if someone is able to link your real identity to your $500k crypto portfolio?
“Doxxing” is the act of disclosing personally identifiable information about a person or organization online. In the crypto space, this could mean putting a real face behind the NFT pfp. And trust me when I say that it’s not that difficult when you transact on public blockchains.
Public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum create a unique and profound risk: the potential for income doxxing. Unlike traditional finance, where your bank balances and salary are heavily guarded secrets, connecting a public address to your identity exposes your entire financial history.
Doxxing your income is not merely an embarrassment; it is the ultimate privacy compromise that can lead directly to tangible, real-world harms.
1. Physical DangerThe most chilling consequence of income doxxing is the connection to physical threat and the highly profitable crime of crypto-ransom kidnapping. Criminals are highly motivated to spend time and resources on targets they know are worth the risk. By exposing your high crypto income or large wallet balance, you move from a general internet user to a verified High-Net-Worth Individual (HNWI) whose abduction is guaranteed to yield a massive payoff.
Once criminals have your name, they can use online tools to find your home address, workplace, and the routines of your family members. Your disclosed income justifies the expense and violence required for an in-person ambush.
2. Financial and Professional BlackmailEven without physical danger, the knowledge of your exact wealth gives malicious actors some leverage over you. If a cybercriminal can link your online alias to a wallet containing millions, they have a powerful tool for extortion. They can threaten to publicly reveal your identity, your controversial past transactions, or simply harass you until you pay a ransom.
When your employer, or a future employer, knows your exact income or net worth, it changes the power dynamic completely. It can be used to justify lower salary offers or lead to internal resentment and jealousy.
Furthermore, scammers are highly sophisticated. They will use the knowledge of your income to craft incredibly convincing, high-stakes phishing attacks specifically designed to appeal to someone with your financial profile.
3. Social Isolation and InequalityDoxxing your income doesn’t just attract criminals; it fundamentally changes your social reality. Public wealth creates unrealistic expectations among friends, family, and even strangers. It can lead to constant requests for loans, and the inability to form genuine, trust-based relationships, as every interaction may be viewed through a financial lens.
Once your income is linked to your name, every controversial or unpopular opinion you post online becomes a target. Attackers can leverage your financial status to discredit your views, accusing you of “buying influence” or simply saying, “Look at this rich person’s opinion.”
Financial Privacy is a ShieldThis is where privacy-focused blockchains like PIVX offer an essential service. By utilizing features like the zk-SNARKs-based SHIELD protocol, you can break the transaction links on the public ledger, making it impossible for someone to trace your public wallet address to your true financial holdings.
In a world where transparency is the default, financial privacy is the ultimate shield against fraud, extortion, and the most extreme forms of personal harm.
PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
The Dangers of Doxxing Your Income was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Horizen 与 Caldera 合作将其隐私优先的区块链生态系统引入 Base,将经过验证的汇总性能与 Horizen 的使命相结合,使隐私在当今的数字世界中变得实用、可审计和可扩展。
开发人员现在可以构建快速、可靠的应用程序,同时利用 Base 不断扩大的流动性网络。
测试网已上线 并准备探索。
下一个隐私时代的基础设施新的 Horizen 链为开发人员提供了构建可扩展、以隐私为中心的应用程序和协议的工具,具有紧密的互操作性和在 Base 上获取大量流动性的权限。Horizen 的隐私优先技术确保用户和创作者保持对敏感数据的控制。
为什么专门的隐私层很重要区块链的透明度解锁了公共可验证性,但限制了企业的采用,因为每笔交易和平衡对任何人来说都是可见的。
Horizen 通过使隐私变得实用而不是意识形态来解决这个问题。它为需要保护战略、知识产权和内部运营而无需躲避监督的机构、贸易商和基金提供合规保密性。
Horizen 是基于 Base 构建的隐私优先基础设施和生态系统,提供机构级安全性、监管兼容性以及对深度 EVM 流动性的访问,使组织能够在链上自信地执行。
Caldera为Horizen的愿景提供动力Caldera 的 RaaS 平台支持 Horizen 在 Base 上的部署,使用 Optimism Bedrock rollup堆栈和 Base 进行可靠性和规模优化,以实现结算和数据可用性。
隐私和互操作性的新时代此次合作展示了专业化、可互操作的基础设施如何为以隐私为中心的链上应用程序的未来提供动力。开发人员可以利用隐私区分功能构建高性能体验,同时确保跨链功能。Horizen 和 Caldera 很荣幸能够支持塑造 DeFi 和 Web3 隐私应用程序等未来的创新者。
The post Horizen 与 Caldera 合作推出隐私优先的区块链 appeared first on Horizen Blog.
We’re excited to announce the release of Zebra 3.0.0—the most feature-rich Zebra release ever! In addition to supporting NU6.1, the latest network upgrade, we’ve also focused on making Zebra easier to run in production, faster to sync, and available on more platforms.
Zebra 3 at a GlanceHere’s what’s new in this release:
NU6.1 Network Upgrade – Activates the latest Zcash protocol upgrade on Mainnet Health Check Endpoints – Built-in HTTP endpoints for monitoring node health and readiness in production deployments ARM64 Support – Native support for Apple Silicon Macs (M1/M2/M3), Raspberry Pi, and ARM cloud servers Dramatically Faster Initial Sync – Full blockchain sync from genesis now takes 15-16 hours in CI and less than 9 hours on some machines, down from 24+ hours (representing a 35-65% reduction in initial sync time) Enhanced Security – Docker images now include software bill of materials (SBOM) and build attestations Easier Configuration – Configure Zebra using environment variables without editing config files Improved Network Infrastructure – Zcash Foundation now runs highly-available Zebra nodes to better support the ecosystem New RPC Methods – Three new methods for network info, mempool stats, and side chain queries plus several new fields on the outputs of existing RPC methods. Faster Testing – Modernized test infrastructure for quicker development cycles
New Versioning approach – Major version numbers now indicate breaking changes, not just network upgrades. This helps you understand when updates need extra attention.
You can now set up health monitoring with load balancers and orchestration tools like Kubernetes. ARM64 support opens up more hardware options including cost-effective ARM cloud instances. The Zcash Foundation is also now running highly-available infrastructure which benefits the entire ecosystem.
If you’re setting up Zebra for the first timeZebra is now easier to configure, allowing you to set environment variables instead of editing config files. Initial sync is dramatically faster (15-16 hours instead of 24+ hours)—and if you’re on an Apple Silicon Mac, you’ll get native ARM64 performance without any extra steps.
If you build tools that use ZebraThree new RPC methods provide better access to network information, mempool data, and side chain queries. We’ve also improved transaction validation performance and made many enhancements to existing RPC methods.
If you contribute to ZebraOur modernized testing infrastructure means faster CI runs and quicker feedback on pull requests. The codebase also benefits from numerous code quality improvements and better documentation.
Want to know more? Here’s a deeper look at what’s in this release.
Network Upgrade & Protocol Changes NU6.1 Network UpgradeZebra 3.0.0 activates NU6.1 on Mainnet, which includes:
Extended funding streams for network development (1,260,000 additional blocks) One-time lockbox disbursements The latest network protocol version (170_140)This release includes several features specifically designed to make running Zebra in production easier and more reliable.
One of the standout features is the addition of HTTP health check endpoints. These simple HTTP endpoints make it straightforward to integrate Zebra with production monitoring and load balancing systems.
Two endpoints are available:
/healthy – Returns 200 when Zebra is running and has active peer connections, 503 otherwise
/ready – Returns 200 when Zebra is fully synced and ready to serve requests, 503 otherwise
The difference matters for production deployments: use /healthy for basic liveness checks (is the process running?) and /ready to ensure you only send traffic to fully synchronized nodes with active peer connections.
Enable the health check server by adding a [health] section to your configuration:
[health]
listen_addr = "0.0.0.0:8080"
min_connected_peers = 1
ready_max_blocks_behind = 2The endpoints are disabled by default and designed for internal infrastructure use (no authentication). They return simple plain-text responses like “ok” or brief explanations when checks fail.
ARM64 Support: Native Performance Everywhere
Zebra now runs natively on ARM64 platforms, which means:
Apple Silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3) – No more emulation or Rosetta overhead
ARM cloud instances – AWS Graviton, Google Cloud Tau T2A, and other ARM servers
Single-board computers – Raspberry Pi and similar devices
Docker automatically handles platform detection:
docker pull zfnd/zebra:latest
# Automatically gets the right version for your platform
This change takes advantage of GitHub’s free ARM64 runners for open source projects, so we can build and test ARM64 releases without additional infrastructure costs. The result is native performance on ARM platforms without any setup complexity.
Enhanced Docker Image Security
For organizations that need to audit their software supply chain, Zebra’s Docker images now include provenance attestations and Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).
What this means:
Provenance attestations track exactly how the image was built, where, and by whom
SBOM provides a complete inventory of all software components in the image
Both enable security scanning, vulnerability tracking, and compliance reporting
These features integrate with tools like Docker Scout, Snyk, and other security platforms that can automatically scan for known vulnerabilities.
Improved Network Infrastructure
The Zcash Foundation has upgraded its deployment infrastructure to run long-lived, highly-available Zebra nodes. These improvements directly benefit the Zcash ecosystem:
DNS Seeder Support – Long-lived nodes with static IP addresses provide reliable peer discovery for the network
Multi-zone High Availability – Running 2-3 instances across availability zones ensures consistent uptime
Automatic Health Monitoring – Uses the new /healthy endpoint with auto-healing to maintain service reliability
Persistent Storage – Disk reuse between deployments eliminates lengthy re-syncs, ensuring nodes stay current
These long-lived nodes with static IP addresses help support the broader Zcash ecosystem by providing stable infrastructure for DNS seeders and improving overall network reliability. While this work is specific to the Foundation’s infrastructure, the underlying improvements to Zebra’s deployment tooling are available for anyone running production nodes.
Performance Improvements
Dramatically Faster Initial Sync: From 24+ Hours to Under 16 Hours
This release delivers a significant performance achievement: full blockchain synchronization from genesis now completes in 15-16 hours, down from 24+ hours in previous versions. This represents a 35-40% reduction in sync time.
The improvement comes primarily from PR #9973, which fixed a regression in how Zebra updates address balances in the database. The fix avoids expensive RocksDB merge operations when the database format is already up-to-date, dramatically improving write performance during initial sync.
This is combined with batch validation improvements for both Orchard and Sapling proofs, which reduce computational overhead during block validation.
Real-world impact: Our continuous integration tests show consistent sync times of 15-16 hours for full Mainnet sync from genesis, compared to 20-28 hours before these optimizations. If you’re running a new Zebra node or syncing from scratch, you’ll see this improvement immediately.
Better Performance Through Batch Validation
Transaction validation is now more efficient thanks to:
Orchard batch validation – Validates multiple Orchard proofs together instead of two at a time
Sapling batch validator – Uses upstream batch validation for Sapling proofs
Batch validation reduces computational overhead during block processing by validating groups of proofs together, which is more efficient than individual verification. The batch size for Orchard validation increased from 2 to 64 actions per batch.
Developer Experience
Easier Configuration with Environment Variables
Zebra now uses a layered configuration system that makes it easier to configure through environment variables:
export ZEBRA_NETWORK__NETWORK=Mainnet
export ZEBRA_STATE__CACHE_DIR=/var/cache/zebra
export ZEBRA_RPC__LISTEN_ADDR=0.0.0.0:8232
zebrad start
The configuration loads in layers: built-in defaults, then optional TOML file, then environment variables. This means you can:
Run Zebra with zero configuration files for simple setups
Use a base configuration file and override specific values via environment variables
Keep secrets in environment variables instead of config files
The pattern for environment variables is ZEBRA_SECTION__KEY, matching the TOML structure. For example, [network] section’s network = "Mainnet" becomes ZEBRA_NETWORK__NETWORK=Mainnet.
Important: This change includes breaking updates to environment variable names. See the Migration Notes section below.
New RPC Methods
Three new RPC methods improve compatibility with existing tools:
getnetworkinfo – Returns network status, peer information, and protocol version details
getmempoolinfo – Provides detailed statistics about the memory pool
getrawtransaction side chain support – Query transactions from side chains
Many existing RPC methods received enhancements:
Script assembly output in transaction details for debugging
Completed z_gettreestate response with all required fields
Added missing Orchard fields to transaction responses
Flexible parameter handling in getaddresstxids (accepts string or object)
Chain info support in getaddressutxos
Standardized byte ordering across RPC responses
Added vjoinsplit field to getrawtransaction
This release includes a complete modernization of the testing infrastructure using cargo-nextest:
Faster test execution – Better parallel test running
Centralized test configuration – 17 specialized test profiles in .config/nextest.toml
Clearer test results – Better progress reporting and timeout handling
Simplified CI workflows – Reduced complexity in GitHub Actions
For contributors, this means quicker feedback on pull requests and less time waiting for CI to complete.
New Versioning Strategy
Starting with Zebra 3.0.0, we’re changing how we version releases. Previously, major version bumps were primarily tied to network upgrades. Going forward, we’ll release a new major version whenever there are breaking changes, which includes:
Changes to the Zebra API
Changes to operational requirements (like configuration format)
Other modifications that require action from node operators or developers
This approach gives us a clearer way to communicate impact. When you see a major version bump, review the release notes carefully and plan for potential updates to your deployment or integration. Minor version bumps will continue to be backward compatible.
Migration Notes
If you’re upgrading from Zebra 2.x, please note these breaking changes.
Environment Variable Changes
The environment variable naming scheme changed. Key updates:
Old Variable
New Variable
ZEBRA_CACHE_DIR
STATE_CACHE_DIR
ZEBRA_FORCE_USE_COLOR
FORCE_USE_COLOR
RUST_LOG or ZEBRA_RUST_LOG
ZEBRA_TRACING__FILTER
For configuration values, use the pattern ZEBRA_SECTION__KEY:
ZEBRA_NETWORK__NETWORK=Mainnet
ZEBRA_RPC__LISTEN_ADDR=0.0.0.0:8232
ZEBRA_STATE__CACHE_DIR=/var/cache/zebra
Docker Entrypoint Changes
The Docker entrypoint no longer generates TOML configuration files automatically. Instead:
Configure using environment variables (recommended)
Mount a configuration file into the container
Use a combination of both approaches
Acknowledgments
A big thank you to all the contributors who made this release possible: @arya2, @oxarbitrage, @conradoplg, @gustavovalverde, @syszery, @upbqdn, @str4d, @nuttycom, @zancas, @natalieesk, @gap-editor, @elijahhampton, @dorianvp, @AloeareV, @sashass1315, @radik878, @GarmashAlex, @Galoretka and @Fibonacci747.
Special recognition goes to Least Authority for the security audit of the NU6.1 implementation which provided valuable suggestions for improvements.
Thank you to everyone who filed issues, tested release candidates, and provided feedback throughout this release cycle.
The Z3 Stack
Zebra 3.0.0 is designed to integrate seamlessly with the other Z3 components. We’ve been developing the Z3 stack, which is a complete deployment solution for Zcash infrastructure. The stack includes:
Zebra – The consensus node (this release)
Zaino – The indexer for address and transaction data
Zallet – The CLI wallet service
These components work together to provide a complete, production-ready Zcash infrastructure that you can deploy with a single configuration.
Zebra 3.0.0 represents a significant step forward in making Zebra production-ready. The features in this release—health checks, ARM64 support, and improved configuration—provide a strong foundation for reliable node operations.
We’re continuing to develop the Z3 stack to provide a complete, easy-to-deploy solution for Zcash infrastructure. We’re also working on future network upgrade support, including early implementations of proposals for NU7.
Get Involved
Questions or feedback? We’d love to hear about your experience with Zebra 3.0.0. Share your thoughts on the Zcash Community Forum, connect with us on Discord, or open an issue in the Zebra repository:
Documentation: Visit the Zebra Book for guides and tutorials
Source Code: Explore our GitHub repository to review the codebase
Issue Tracker: Report bugs or request features
Contribution Guide: Learn how to contribute to Zebra
Community Forum: Join the discussion on the Zcash Community Forum
Community Chat: Connect with us on Discord for real-time discussions
The post Zebra 3.0.0 Release: Our Most Feature-Rich Release Ever appeared first on Zcash Foundation.
The Zcash Foundation is committed to transparency and openness with the Zcash community and our other stakeholders. Today, we are releasing our Q3 2025 report, which provides an overview of the work undertaken by our engineering team, as well as an overview of other activities during this period.
As with our previous quarterly reports, this report describes our financial inflow and outflows, with a detailed breakdown of our expenses, and we have included a snapshot of the Foundation’s financial position, in terms of liquid assets and liabilities that must be met using those assets.
Download the Q3 2025 report here.
Our previous quarterly reports can be found here.
The post The Zcash Foundation’s Q3 2025 Report appeared first on Zcash Foundation.
Emmett Shear, founder of Twitch and former OpenAI interim CEO, challenges the fundamental assumptions driving AGI development. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg and Séb Krier, Shear argues that the entire "control and steering" paradigm for AI alignment is fatally flawed. Instead, he proposes "organic alignment" - teaching AI systems to genuinely care about humans the way we naturally do. The discussion explores why treating AGI as a tool rather than a potential being could be catastrophic, how current chatbots act as "narcissistic mirrors," and why the only sustainable path forward is creating AI that can say no to harmful requests. Shear shares his technical approach through multi-agent simulations at his new company Softmax, and offers a surprisingly hopeful vision of humans and AI as collaborative teammates - if we can get the alignment right.
Resources:
Follow Emmett on X: https://x.com/eshear
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Joint work with Sebastian Angel (University of Pennsylvania), Sofía Celi (Brave), Elizabeth Margolin (University of Pennsylvania), Pratyush Mishra (University of Pennsylvania), Martin Sander (University of Pennsylvania), Jess Woods (University of Pennsylvania).
Parsing is one of those fundamental operations in computing that usually goes unnoticed. Whenever a browser renders a web page, a firewall inspects traffic, or a compiler transforms code, some parser is silently turning a raw stream of bytes into a structured object. We tend to take this step for granted, assuming that once the input is parsed, the rest of the system can reason safely about it. We also tend to expect browsers or compilers to do this “out-of-the-box” and to fix any parsing errors on the fly.
This expectation is not unreasonable in day-to-day computing. Browsers recover gracefully from malformed HTML, and compilers flag syntax errors so that developers can fix them. But in privacy-preserving verification settings, particularly in zero-knowledge proof systems, this assumption and leniency is problematic. A prover might commit to some byte stream and then claim that it represents a valid JSON document, a token, or a source file, without ever proving that parsing was carried out correctly. The verifier, lacking access to the underlying data, has no way to tell if the prover is being honest. This missing link between raw bytes and structured data has quietly limited the scope of many proposed ZK applications. A proof system that assumes “the input is already a valid JSON object” or “the transcript must be well-formed” leaves itself open to subtle but impactful attacks. If a prover can slip malformed input (without verifying the parsing stage), they may be able to prove false claims with valid-looking proofs.
The missing link in ZK applications: CoralOver the past decade, the cryptography community has explored ambitious ideas under the umbrella of zero-knowledge: proving statements about TLS sessions, verifying attributes from digital credentials, checking compilation chains, and enforcing network policies without revealing the underlying traffic. Yet all of these share a silent fragility.
Consider the case of zk-TLS. A user might want to prove to a smart contract that their bank’s API reported a certain balance. Today’s approaches typically assume the API response is already a well-formed JSON object (or HTML). If the bank’s server is misconfigured or encounters a bug which causes it to output a malformed response (not valid JSON or HTML), a malicious prover can misuse this malformed response to convince the verifier of a wrong fact. Similar gaps appear in zk-Authorization systems that work with JWTs, or in zk-Middleboxes that inspect traffic without any guarantee that the data stream adheres to its formal grammar (being that JSON, HTML, or HTTPS).
Without a way to prove that bytes are parsed correctly into structured objects, these systems must either leak information, rely on unverifiable assumptions, or leave themselves open to attack. In order to fix this, we introduce Coral, a system for proving in zero-knowledge that a committed byte stream corresponds to a structured object in accordance with a Context Free Grammar.
Coral’s approachCoral’s approach begins from a simple observation: in many settings, verifying the outcome of a computation is far easier than performing the computation itself, especially when the verifier is given suitable hints. A classic example is sorting: producing a sorted list takes O(n log n) time, but verifying that a list is correctly sorted (and corresponds to a given original list) only takes a single pass, or O(n), if the prover provides the sorted output together with a mapping from each element in the original list.
Parsing exhibits the same structure. Parsing is the process of determining whether an input byte string conforms to a given grammar, and, if so, producing a parse tree that witnesses this conformance. Executing the full parsing algorithm is a complex, stateful process, but verifying the result of parsing, typically represented as a parse tree, is dramatically easier. Rather than encoding the parser functionality itself into circuits or emulating it inside a zkVM 1, Coral assumes that an untrusted parser has produced a candidate parse tree, and focuses only on checking that this output is correct in regards to the private original byte stream and a public grammar.
However, this raises a representational challenge: parse trees for standard context-free grammars (CFGs) naturally contain nodes with arbitrary numbers of children. Such variable-degree nodes map poorly to circuit-based proof systems, which prefer uniform, fixed-arity structures. Coral overcomes this by applying a classical compiler-technique transformation. The parse tree is converted into a left-child right-sibling (LCRS) binary tree, a representation that encodes the same structure but ensures that each node has at most two outgoing edges: one to its first child and one to its next sibling. This binary, uniform layout preserves the full semantics of the original grammar while aligning with the fixed-arity wiring of R1CS constraints.
With a binary parse-tree structure that fits naturally in R1CS, the next challenge is how to verify it efficiently, step by step, inside a proof system. Coral introduces a specialized NP checker: a uniform verification loop that checks that each node of the tree matches both the grammar and the underlying byte stream. Because this loop is uniform and recursive, it is compatible with folding schemes like Nova, allowing thousands of verification steps to be aggregated into a single succinct proof.
Implementing this NP checker requires careful handling of several kinds of memory: read-only public grammar rules, a persistent private parse tree, and stacks used during tree traversal. Coral unifies these into a segmented memory abstraction that exposes a single interface for public and private, persistent and volatile regions. This design lets the checker access exactly the memory it needs at each step, while keeping the overall construction simple and compatible with folding.
The result is a clean, modular system: bytes (belonging to a document) are committed once, transformed into a parse tree, and then verified in zero-knowledge via the NP checker and its memory management, which scales smoothly even on modest machines. In the system, efficiency is crucial. Previous approaches that attempted to reason about parsing in ZK either relied on zkVMs, emulating an entire CPU and parser at high overhead, or on transformations that required grammars to be rewritten into Chomsky Normal Form, inflating their size and losing practical features such as exclusion rules. Coral avoids both pitfalls and can be used with any Context-Free Grammar.
The implementation, written in Rust, proves the parsing of realistic inputs such as JSON API responses, TOML configuration files, and subsets of C source code. Proofs are succinct (under 20 kB), quick to generate (seconds), and cheap to verify (under 70 ms). Importantly, they require only a few gigabytes of memory and no special hardware, making them feasible on an ordinary laptop.
Toward broader applicationsWith parsing in zero knowledge now within reach, new avenues open up. For instance, a prover can commit to a TLS transcript and prove not just that some field exists, but that the transcript itself parsed correctly under the relevant grammar. A user can prove properties of a credential without revealing the token or its structure, knowing that malformed inputs cannot trick the verifier. Compilation chains, often opaque and difficult to audit, can be proven end-to-end: from source code to binary, with the parsing steps included. Even middleboxes can enforce policies while respecting privacy, because they can rely on proofs about the syntactic structure of traffic rather than trust opaque byte streams.
Coral is not a complete solution. Many real-world formats, such as HTML, PDF, and Python, are not context-free. In practice, many commonly used grammars rely on priorities and complex negative predicates, which we do not yet support. Extending Coral to handle context-sensitive features remains an open and important challenge. But by addressing the fundamental gap between commitments to bytes and proofs over structured objects, Coral lays the foundation for a new generation of ZK systems.
Parsing may seem mundane compared to the sophistication of cryptographic protocols, but in many ways it is the keystone. Without guarantees that inputs are parsed correctly, higher-level proofs risk being built on sand. Coral grows from that sand: packing it, proof by proof, into something solid. Coral demonstrates that this keystone can be brought into the realm of zero knowledge: fast, succinct, and practical. By making parsing provable, we hope Coral helps unlock applications where verifiability and privacy are not trade-offs but partners, and where the structured objects we depend on can be reasoned about with the same rigour as the cryptographic proofs themselves.
Want to know more?Coral has been accepted to IEEE S&P 2026, so attend if you want to learn more! Or you can play with our code: https://github.com/eniac/coral
A zkVM is a virtual machine whose execution can be proved inside a zero-knowledge proof system. Instead of writing custom circuits for each computation, a zkVM lets developers run arbitrary programs (usually in a fixed instruction set like RISC-V or WASM), and then generates a succinct proof that the program was executed correctly on some input, optionally hiding the input and intermediate state. ↩︎
The post Introducing AirOps: The System of Action for Organic Growth appeared first on Greylock.
Your weekly PIVX recap is here. We filtered through the noise to bring you only the most critical market movements and the hottest community happenings in one easy read.
Market Pulse Masternode Count: The active masternode count has rebounded to 2,048, an increase from 1,915. This rise is likely a result of the recent price drop, which presents a timely opportunity for operators to own masternodes affordably. Price Check: PIVX prices finally succumbed to the negative trends in the broader crypto market, resulting in a weekly loss of nearly 40%. The asset’s Daily USD Value was highly volatile, swinging sharply between $0.20 and $0.30. The weekly average price is now $0.25, down from last week’s $0.2952.PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
PIVX Weekly Pulse (Nov 7th, 2025 — Nov. 13th, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Two venture capitalists dissect why biotech burns billions while China runs trials in weeks—and why the next Genentech won't look anything like the last one. Elliot Hershberg reveals the "three horsemen" strangling drug development as costs explode to $2.5 billion per approval, while Lada Nuzhna exposes how investigator-initiated trials in Shanghai are rewriting the competitive playbook faster than American founders can file INDs. When the infrastructure that built monoclonal antibodies becomes the commodity threatening to hollow out an entire industry, the only path forward demands inventing medicines that are literally impossible to make without tools that don't exist yet—and they're betting everything on which approach survives.
Resources:
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Fei-Fei Li and Justin Johnson are pioneers in AI. While the world has only recently witnessed a surge in consumer AI, they have long been laying the groundwork for the innovations transforming industries today.
With the recent launch of Marble, the first product from their company World Labs, we are revisiting this conversation to explore the ideas that started it all. World Labs is focused on spatial intelligence, building Large World Models that can perceive, generate, and interact with the 3D world. Marble brings that vision to life, allowing anyone, from individual creators to major platforms, to generate 3D scenes directly from text or image prompts and turn complex 3D creation into a simple, creative process.
In this episode, a16z general partner Martin Casado talks with Fei-Fei and Justin about the journey from early AI winters to the rise of deep learning and multimodal AI. From foundational breakthroughs like ImageNet to the cutting-edge realm of spatial intelligence, they discuss the evolution of the field and what is next for innovation at World Labs.
Timecode:
0:00 – The Next Decade of AI
2:45 – Origins: Backgrounds of the Founders
6:50 – The Rise of Deep Learning & ImageNet
8:00 – Algorithmic Unlocks: Compute, Data, and Supervised Learning
12:00 – From Predictive to Generative AI
16:20 – The Journey to Spatial Intelligence
18:35 – Defining Spatial Intelligence
21:15 – 3D Data, Computer Vision, and Breakthroughs
23:15 – Reconstruction vs. Generation in Computer Vision
24:45 – Spatial Intelligence vs. Language Models
29:00 – Applications: Virtual, Augmented, and Physical Worlds
39:55 – Building World Labs: Team and Vision
41:55 – The North Star: Measuring Success in Spatial Intelligence
Resources:
Learn more about World Labs: https://www.worldlabs.ai
Learn more about Marble: https://Marble.WorldLabs.ai
Find Fei-Fei on Twitter: https://x.com/drfeifei
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上周,Horizen Labs 首席执行官robviglione与BlockchainAssn的成员在华盛顿特区与美国政策制定者会面,讨论隐私技术的未来及其在商业和国防领域的应用。
以下是具体内容:
HorizenLabs作为Horizen和Zkverify的开发者,我们认为隐私和可验证性对于安全和创新的数字经济至关重要。
Rob与其他行业领袖一起帮助国会了解零知识密码技术如何加强消费者保护和国家韧性。
从支付安全到数据完整性,零知识和隐私技术对各行各业都有着实际的影响,而不仅仅是在加密货币领域。 这些讨论有助于确保美国决策者了解这项创新如何在未来几年推动经济竞争力和数字安全及防御。
HorizenLabs一直致力于负责任的创新
从构建最早的以隐私为中心的区块链之一,到推进可验证的系统以证明完整性而不泄露敏感数据,我们的目标始终如一:通过技术实现信任。
我们很荣幸能与BlockchainAssn
以及我们的其他成员Aleo、CESS_Storage 、 TheDRC_ ElectricCoinCo 、injective基金会、 the_matter_labs、union_build并肩作战,为国会山带来清晰的认识、教育和合作。
隐私、信任和可验证技术的未来取决于公开对话和相互理解。
The post Horizen CEO RobViglione 上周出席华盛顿DC国会山的隐私会议 appeared first on Horizen Blog.
Captured live at Cosmoverse 2025, this episode brings host Sebastian in conversation with Michael (better known as Cryptocito, Cosmos investor via Cito Ventures) and Magnus (@0xMagmar, Co-CEO Cosmos Labs).
Against a backdrop of institutional gravitas, central banks mingling alongside Revolut executives, the conversation traces Cosmos' arc across five Cosmoverses, from Medellín's raw developer fervor to the polished, enterprise-oriented event unfolding here. It's a marker of the ecosystem's maturation, one that demands Cosmos "grow up" to weave itself into the fabric of global finance, governance, and economies beyond its insular origins.
Magnus lays out Cosmos Labs' forward path: Systematically acquiring and refining homegrown innovations, such as the EVM rebuild over six months into a core stack component and consolidating privacy primitives from projects like Secret Network and Penumbra into seamless, enterprise-grade tools.
These advancements, long championed by Cosmos builders, now stand ready for institutional adoption. On quantum threats, enterprises show little concern for now, but the panel underscores blockchains' unique vulnerabilities: Unlike centralized systems, they require broad coordination for upgrades, where Bitcoin's inertia pales against Cosmos' app-chain flexibility, allowing isolated chain overhauls without dragging down the broader network, a resilience Ethereum lacks.
Topics covered in this episode:
0:00 Introduction & Cosmoverse Vibe Check 2:30 Reflections on Five Cosmoverses 6:45 Ecosystem Maturation: Grassroots to Institutional Focus 11:20 Cosmos Labs' Roadmap: Unifying Privacy & EVM Innovations 16:50 Building Cohesive Stack Features for Enterprises 22:15 Privacy Tools: Secret Network, Penumbra, and Nym 27:40 Quantum Computing Threats & Blockchain Vulnerabilities 33:10 Coordination Challenges: Hard Forks vs. App-Chain Modularity 38:25 Sovereign Day Argentina: CBDC & Gov Sovereignty Summit 43:50 Leadership Adaptation & Community Inclusion 49:20 Future Vision: Cosmos as Global Finance Enabler 54:00 Closing Thoughts & Event ShoutoutsEpisode links:
- Michael (@Cryptocito) (https://x.com/Cryptocito )
- Magnus (@0xMagmar) (https://x.com/0xMagmar)
- Gnosis (https://gnosis.io/)
- Epicenter - All Episodes (https://epicenter.tv/)
- Cosmoverse 2025 (https://cosmoverse.org/)
Sponsors:
- Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io
This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture.
Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/
The Empire State Building took 110 days to build—today, changing a window would take two years.
Alex Rampell (a16z) and Varun Krishna (Rocket CEO) expose how asset inflation turned housing from the American Dream into a wealth transfer machine where the median homebuyer age jumped from 30 to 38 in just fourteen years. While Silicon Valley burns billions on products people use daily but never pay for, Rocket quietly assembled a $10 billion profit engine and is now buying up the entire housing funnel—from Redfin's 50 million monthly searchers to one in six US mortgages—betting they can crack the code everyone else gave up on: turning a once-in-a-lifetime transaction into an everyday relationship.
Resources:
Follow Varun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varun-krishna-30019a22
Follow Rocket on X: https://x.com/RocketOTD
Follow Alex on X: https://x.com/arampell
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Non-custodial exchange platform ChangeNOW is positioning itself as the crucial bridge for privacy-first cryptocurrencies such as PIVX.
In a recent interview, Pauline Shangett, CSO at ChangeNOW, outlined a philosophy where user privacy is “baked in, not an add-on,” revealing how their platform’s infrastructure is designed to solve the single greatest threat to privacy-centric users: exposure through necessary financial interactions.
The Two-Minute, No-Account Privacy PledgePIVX provides robust, protocol-level confidentiality, but the moment a user swaps, trades, or uses DeFi, they risk creating a traceable on-chain footprint. ChangeNOW aims to eliminate that risk with a core non-custodial model that allows users to have full ownership and control of their funds throughout the exchange process.
“PIVX users can rely on our infrastructure to extend their privacy and security into the wider crypto ecosystem,” stated Shangett.
The exchange platform boasts a staggering reach, supporting swaps across 1500+ assets and 110+ blockchains, but its defining features are speed and stealth. Most exchanges are completed in under two minutes, minimizing the window for transactional analysis. Furthermore, its non-custodial design means users do not have to create complex trackable profiles.
Meanwhile, users can opt for a permanent address for repeated swaps, preventing the constant generation of new addresses that analytics firms could use to infer activity patterns.
The Bridge to Private DeFiThere is renewed interest in privacy coins, signalling a new era for the niche. Shangett envisions ChangeNOW as the essential bridge, allowing PIVX holders to access liquidity pools, lending, and yield products.
The core challenge, as Shangett notes, is that “transparency is the default” on public blockchains. ChangeNOW fights back by mitigating classic exposure points such as centralized custody and on-chain hops.
Extensive cross-chain support means PIVX can move into other chains with fewer, less traceable transitional steps. Quick processing and low minimum amounts (as little as $2) also reduce the chances of failed transactions or repeated attempts that inevitably generate extra on-chain data.
The Future of Personal Crypto ManagementLooking forward, ChangeNOW is focused on evolving its tools to match the growing demand for personal control. This includes enhancing transaction history features that provide clear user data without compromising control, and continuously expanding cross-chain functionality to offer maximum diversification with minimum exposure.
The ultimate vision is a practical, user-centric collaboration: PIVX brings the deep, on-chain privacy technology, and ChangeNOW makes it accessible, flexible, and integrated for everyone around the world. The message is clear: privacy is not a luxury, and ChangeNOW is building the infrastructure to make it a right.
PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
How ChangeNOW Unlocks Private DeFi for Crypto Users was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Executive Director Jess Scully speaks with Takahiro Anno, an AI engineer, science fiction writer and newly elected member of Japan's House of Councillors. Anno shares his remarkable journey from software engineer to politician, driven by a desire to "fix the bugs" in society and democracy.
Anno's political rise has been rapid. In his first-ever campaign for Tokyo Governor in July 2024, Anno received over 150,000 votes, an unprecedented milestone for a candidate in their 30s with no prior political experience. Following this success, he founded Team Mirai in May 2025 and, just months later, won a seat in Japan's national parliament with 2% of the vote, securing a six-year term.
The conversation explores his innovative "broad listening" approach, which challenges the traditional "broadcasting" model of politics. Anno treated his campaign like an open-source software project, publishing policies on GitHub and openly accepting "pull requests" from citizens. During the Tokyo campaign, his team received over 100 proposals and merged more than 80, continuously updating their 100-page policy book just like open-source software.
Anno also details the technology that made this possible. His team created "AI Anno," an AI avatar hosted on YouTube Live that could engage voters 24/7, bypassing legal restrictions limiting human campaigning to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The avatar enabled two-way communication: citizens could see each other's questions, making it easier to participate, while Anno's team analyzed conversation logs to identify and address common concerns.
For his national campaign, Anno's team scaled participation dramatically using Model Context Protocol (MCP). Citizens could simply converse with an AI, which would automatically generate GitHub pull requests on their behalf, removing technical barriers entirely. This approach gathered over 10,000 proposals, 100 times more than his first campaign in Tokyo.
Critically, Anno made all of these tools open source, embracing openness as a core value and the most practical way for a small party to create systemic change. Politicians from other parties have already committed to using these tools in future campaigns.
Jess and Anno discuss his mission for the next six years: using technology to enable large-scale deliberative democracy. While many fear AI's potential to erode democracy through deepfakes and misinformation, Anno provides a powerful, working example of how these tools can make democracy more transparent, participatory, and responsive to citizens' voices.
Host: Jess Scully
Guest: Takahiro Anno
Producer: Jack Henderson
Feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at info@radicalxchange.org.
Connect with RadicalxChange Foundation:
Website X YouTube LinkedIn Discord BlueSkyThe post Introducing SuperMe: The AI-Native Professional Network appeared first on Greylock.
The Zcash Foundation (ZF) is proud to announce the appointments of Pili Guerra and Danika Delano to our leadership team, reflecting our commitment to promoting from within and recognizing the exceptional talent that has been instrumental to our success.
Pili Guerra: Head of EngineeringPili has been promoted from Engineering Manager to Head of Engineering, where she will lead the Foundation’s technical initiatives and build on the strong framework she has helped establish over the past five years.
Before joining ZF, Pili worked at the Tor Project and Red Hat, bringing a deep understanding of privacy-focused technology and open source development to ZF, which continues to shape our engineering vision and impact.
Danika Delano: Chief Operating OfficerDanika has been promoted from Operations Director to Chief Operating Officer, recognizing the breadth and depth of her contributions across the Foundation. This role was previously held by Alex Bornstein, who was recently appointed Executive Director.
Over the past five years, Danika has been instrumental in guiding ZF’s operations, from managing finances and HR to leading grant programs and ensuring smooth organizational performance. Her leadership also shines through in community-building efforts, including organizing Zcon, the Foundation’s annual conference.
Our Leadership TeamBoth Pili and Danika demonstrate the kind of long-term dedication and institutional knowledge that strengthens our organization. Their promotions reflect not only their individual accomplishments but also our philosophy of recognizing and elevating talented individuals who have been essential to our growth.
With Alex Bornstein at the helm as Executive Director and Elise Hamdon continuing as Chief Communications Officer, the Foundation enters a new chapter marked by an expanded leadership team with a history of deep commitment to Zcash’s mission of financial privacy and freedom.
Please join us in congratulating Pili and Danika on their well-deserved promotions.
The post Zcash Foundation Announces New Leadership Appointments appeared first on Zcash Foundation.
Grant Lee was told Gamma was "the worst idea ever heard" by an investor who hung up mid-Zoom—yet he built it to 100 million users and $100M ARR without spending a dollar on advertising.
While competitors hired aggressively, Grant's team of seven refused to grow, dedicating 25% of their tiny team to design and personally onboarding every influencer themselves.
They reveal how ignoring AI for their first two years, then orchestrating multiple models in ways the frontier labs can't replicate, let them steal the presentation market from Microsoft and Google—going from 60,000 signups in eight months to 50,000 per day.
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When four MIT grads decided to build a code editor while everyone else was building AI agents, they created the fastest-growing developer tool ever built.
Cursor CEO Michael Truell joins a16z’s Martin Casado to discuss the deliberate constraints that led to breakthroughs: why they rejected the "democratization" narrative to focus on power users, how their 2-day work trials test for agency over credentials, and the strategic decision to own the editor when conventional wisdom said it was impossible.
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One of the interesting things about PIVX is your power of choice. You can decide to transact publicly, like Bitcoin, or privately, using its advanced SHIELD protocol. Unlike many other cryptocurrencies, where transactions are fully transparent, SHIELD leverages zero-knowledge proofs to break the link between sender and receiver, ensuring your transaction amounts and balances remain completely private.
This tutorial will guide you through the process of taking your public PIV coins and turning them into private coins (aka “SHIELDING”), and then sending them privately.
Types of PIVX TransactionsBroadly speaking, there are two types of PIVX transactions — transparent and private. But technically, there are actually three types: fully transparent, semi-private, and fully private (SHIELDED).
Both the sender’s and receiver’s details are public for everyone to see in a fully transparent transaction. In a semi-private transaction, either the sender’s or receiver’s address is hidden. And you guessed right, both the sender’s and receiver’s details stay completely hidden in a fully private transaction.
Fun Fact: Did you know that sending funds from a transparent PIVX address to a private one is known as Shielding? This is similar to putting your PIVX coins into an invisibility cloak. The reverse process is known as De-Shielding.
Shielding Your PIV (Public to Private)Shielding involves transferring your PIV from a transparent address to a private one. This process “shreds” the public transaction history and turns your PIV into private, Shielded balances. Here are the steps involved in Shielding.
Open your PIVX Core Wallet or MyPIVXWallet and click on the “Send” tab. The UI varies depending on the wallet you are using.2. Input the recipient’s shielded PIVX address. Note that shielded addresses start with a “ps” prefix while transparent addresses start with a “D”. For instance, this is what my private address looks like: ps1plde029yqszv9du7el8nyw0ynu0yamp5yc9h9v966a9s25umsz6aqnr7fts9yfjaheex566cphn
3. Enter the amount you’d like to send and click on the “Send” button.
If you are shielding your own coins, you will send them to your own shielded address, effectively moving them from the transparent side of your wallet to the private side.
Sending a Fully Private (SHIELDED) TransactionOnce your PIV coins are in your shielded balance, you can send a transaction that is completely private. This means the amount, the sender’s balance, and the receiver’s balance are all hidden on the blockchain. The steps are basically the same as what you have above. However, you need to switch to the private side of things.
Click on the “Shielded” tab if you are using the PIVX Core Wallet or “Switch to Private” if you are on MPW.
PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
How to Send a Private Transaction in PIVX was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
The post Introducing Tenzai: Autonomous AI Hackers appeared first on Greylock.
The regulatory environment has completely inverted. Stablecoins are now a top 20 holder of US treasuries. Every major bank wants in. In a16z Crypto's 2025 State of Crypto report, Daren Matsuoka (Head of Data) and Eddy Lazzarin (CTO) reveal how crypto hit $4 trillion market cap while fundamentally reshaping how institutions think about payments, with surprising data on why developers aren't following prices this cycle and what privacy's inevitable rise means for mainstream adoption.
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Join new host and Executive Director Jess Scully for a critical conversation on digital resilience, democracy, and reconstruction with Max Semenchuk, Program Director of the Web3 Institute in Ukraine.
In this episode, Max explains why, even in the midst of full-scale war, digital innovation has become a critical priority for the Ukrainian government. He provides context on the immense challenges facing the nation, including population decline from 52 million to 37 million and the pressures of war on democracy. The core mission, he argues, is not just to survive, but to "build a country desirable for the young to stay or for others to return," using Web3 to contribute to better coordination and new institutions.
Max shares his personal journey from software entrepreneur to civic technologist, catalyzed by the 2016 DAO experiment and accelerated by applying DAO principles during the COVID-19 crisis. This eventually led him to advise Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation on crypto regulation and Web3 strategy.
The conversation explores Ukraine's remarkable digital transformation: rising from 57th to 1st place globally in the UN's e-participation index between 2022 and 2024. Max discusses groundbreaking platforms like Diia (digital ID), Prozorro (transparent public procurement) and Dream (reconstruction project coordination), showing how decentralized infrastructure strengthens democratic resilience even under extreme conditions.
Max also discusses the challenges of translating "radical" Web3 ideas to government officials who often confuse the technology with cryptocurrency, and how the Web3 Institute is bridging that gap through education, practical experience and building "minimum viable consortia" that bring together business, academia and government.
Tune in to learn how decentralized digital infrastructure is supporting Ukraine's resilience and to hear about the upcoming IEEE Ukrainian DLT Forum: Rebuidl, where RadicalxChange is co-hosting a virtual event on "The Future of Digital Democracy: Learning from Ukraine."
Feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at info@radicalxchange.org.
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Your weekly PIVX update is here. We’ve condensed the most important market pulse points and community news into one essential recap for you.
Market Pulse Masternode Count: The active masternode count dropped to 1,915, down from 2,047 and ending a two-week streak of growth. This decline is likely correlated with the recent price appreciation, suggesting that some operators are choosing to take profits after the rally. Price Check: PIVX continued its strong bullish momentum this week, fundamentally outperforming the broader crypto market’s downturn. The leading privacy coin recorded an impressive week-over-week gain of over 40%. Its Daily USD Value ranged sharply from $0.24 to $0.35, establishing a healthy weekly average price of $0.2952 (a substantial increase from last week’s $0.2209). Trading Buzz: The upward move in prices was backed by explosive trading activity. The total weekly volume soared to over $170 million, a 30% increase from the previous week’s $131 million. This spike is driven by two key factors: a major, sector-wide rally among privacy coins like Zcash and Monero, and a growing confidence among traders that PIVX’s recent rally is sustainable, attracting new capital and increasing liquidity.PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 31st, 2025 — Nov. 6th, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Adam D’Angelo (Quora/Poe) thinks we're 5 years from automating remote work. Amjad Masad (Replit) thinks we're brute-forcing intelligence without understanding it.
In this conversation, two technical founders who are building the AI future disagree on almost everything: whether LLMs are hitting limits, if we're anywhere close to AGI, and what happens when entry-level jobs disappear but experts remain irreplaceable. They dig into the uncomfortable reality that AI might create a "missing middle" in the job market, why everyone in SF is suddenly too focused on getting rich to do weird experiments, and whether consciousness research has been abandoned for prompt engineering.
Plus: Why coding agents can now run for 20+ hours straight, the return of the "sovereign individual" thesis, and the surprising sophistication of everyday users juggling multiple AIs.
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Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg join a16z’s Ben Horowitz, Erik Torenberg, and Vineeta Agarwala to share how the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is building the computational tools that will accelerate the cure, prevention, and management of all disease by century's end. They explain why basic science needs $100 million-scale projects that traditional NIH grants can't fund, how their Cell Atlas became biology's missing periodic table with millions of cells catalogued in open-source format, and why their new virtual cell models will let scientists test high-risk hypotheses in silico before investing in expensive wet lab work. Plus: the organizational shift unifying the Biohub under AI leadership, what happens when biologists and engineers sit side-by-side, and why modern biology labs are expanding compute instead of square footage.
Timestamps:
4:17 - Building tools to accelerate scientific discovery
5:47 - The credible path to funding basic science
7:21 - Biohub = Frontier Biology + Frontier AI
9:05 - Challenges building on a 10-15 year timeline
9:43 - How CZI chooses what to work on
11:15 - Making sense of science with LLMs
11:31 - Measuring success in the therapeutic realm
13:32 - “Most diseases should be thought of as rare diseases”
15:39 - Inspiration: building a periodic table for biology
19:27 - Why virtual cells?
21:17 - The Biohub Master Plan
21:51 - How virtual cell models allow more risk taking
28:15 - Bringing CZI & Biohub together
30:32 - Why Biohub matters
33:36 - The importance of interface design in democratizing scientific discovery
35:34 - How Biohub encourages cross-functional collaboration
40:38 - Looking ahead: the broader impact of AI on biotech
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For years, cybersecurity has been a game of digital cat and mouse. The security team releases a patch (the cat), and the hackers find a new exploit (the mouse). But what happens when the mouse starts evolving mid-chase? What could possibly go wrong when it gets an education?
If you’ve been following the headlines about artificial intelligence (AI), you’ve probably assumed the biggest risk to cybersecurity was the sheer scale of AI-generated phishing emails. Well, think again!
According to a new report, state-backed hackers have crossed a significant line. They are now deploying malware that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to dynamically adapt during an active attack.
Welcome to the future of cyber threats, where the malware is no longer a static piece of code but a digital creature that learns, changes, and evades detection on the fly.
The Self-Evolving ThreatCybersecurity researchers are calling this a “significant step towards more autonomous and adaptive malware.” Previously, hackers used AI for things like maximizing their victim count or writing initial malicious code, aka “vibe coding”. Now, we’re seeing AI capabilities utilized mid-execution to dynamically alter the malware’s behavior.
Think of traditional malware as a detailed, pre-planned military operation. The new AI-powered malware is a field commander who can call on an AI brain to instantly rewrite the battle plan based on real-time resistance. A few unsettling examples have already surfaced, such as:
PROMPTFLUX: The Rewriter. This experimental dropper malware was designed with one stunning capability. It can prompt an LLM to rewrite its own source code in order to evade security systems. While it’s currently in a testing phase and has been disrupted, the concept is terrifying. Imagine an antivirus program scanning a piece of code, only for the code to instantly transform itself, making the scan result moot. PROMPTSTEAL: The Dynamic Commander. Deployed in live operations by the Russia-linked group APT28 (also known as Fancy Bear) against Ukrainian targets, this malware used LLMs to generate commands instead of relying on commands hard-coded into its script. This incident marks the first confirmed use of malware querying an LLM during an actual attack. Instead of a fixed playbook, the malware is asking its AI brain, “What’s the best command to run now?” The AI Crime-As-a-Service MarketThese methods may be experimental, but they show the clear, accelerating trajectory of advanced threats. Attackers are already moving beyond basic AI technical support and into a growing marketplace for “purpose-built” AI criminal tools.
This is perhaps the most worrying implication for the rest of us. These tools are being marketed in underground forums with language that mirrors legitimate software advertising, touting increased efficiency and streamlined workflows. This means that low-level criminals, who lack deep technical expertise, can now buy effective, sophisticated tools that were once the domain of state-sponsored operations. The barrier for complex, adaptive cybercrime is being demolished.
If the most formidable threats of tomorrow are not just simple scripts, but autonomous, adaptive programs that can rewrite their own DNA to stay alive and adjust their attack strategy based on resistance, then we have officially entered a new digital arms race.
What could possibly go wrong? Everything.
PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
When Malware Learns to Think was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Brian Fabian Crain and Michael Egorov, Curve Finance founder, discuss Curve's origins: solving inefficient DAI/USDC swaps after MakerDAO borrows by creating a DeFi AMM for stablecoins and LSTs.
It hit 1M TVL with a bonding curve concentrating liquidity at 1:1, more effective for pegged assets than Uniswap. Features grew to include BTC wrappers, stETH pairs, and crvUSD (a CDP stablecoin with reversible liquidations & a peg-keeper).
Governance uses veCRV: Locking CRV grants voting power proportional to lock duration, a mechanism now refined in Yield Basis.
Yield Basis solves impermanent loss in volatile pools (e.g., BTC/crvUSD). Users deposit BTC; the protocol borrows crvUSD, pairs it at 2x leverage (50% debt/equity), and uses LP tokens as collateral. This gives 1:1 asset tracking, while fees accrue from auto-rebalancing arbitrage.
Simulations show 20%+ APY (may decline as BTC volatility drops) under a $50B TVL cap. It complements Curve by directing veCRV incentives to crvUSD pools, enhancing liquidity, fees, and DAO revenues. Key considerations: manual migrations, deterring forks, and dev support to scale.
Topics Discussed
00:00 Introduction to Curve Finance and YieldBases 02:24 Understanding Curve's Unique Mechanisms 07:58 The Concept of veTokenomics 15:27 Lessons Learned from Building Curve 22:20 Exploring YieldBasis and Its Innovations 29:47 Understanding Yield Basis and Collateralization 32:25 Navigating Market Volatility and Liquidation Events 35:32 Metrics and Performance Insights of Yield Basis 38:35 Scaling Yield Basis: Future Directions 40:33 Yield Expectations and Market Dynamics 43:12 Potential Growth and Liquidity Challenges 46:18 Expanding to Other Chains and Governance Tokens 49:35 The Symbiotic Relationship with Curve 54:31 Upcoming Milestones and Future Developments
Links Mentioned
Michael Egorov on X Curve Finance Yield Basis Gnosis Epicenter - All Episodes
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This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.
Eugenia Kuyda, CEO of Wabi and AI pioneer behind Replika, joins Erik, Anish, and Justine to reveal how personal software will transform from a developer monopoly to a creative medium for all. She exposes why command-line AI interfaces are the new MS-DOS, explains how mini-apps will become as shareable as TikToks, and details her decade-long journey from training language models in 2012 to building the platform where your mom can create custom apps in minutes. Plus: untold stories from OpenAI's apartment days and why voice-only devices completely miss the point.
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ElevenLabs CEO and co‑founder Mati Staniszewski joins Jennifer Li to explain how the team ships research‑grade AI at lightning speed—from text‑to‑speech and fully licensed AI music to real‑time voice agents—and why voice is the next interface for human‑computer interaction. He shares the small, autonomous team model, global hiring approach, and how the Voice Marketplace has paid creators over $10M while evolving into an enterprise platform.
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This blogpost describes ongoing academic research from Sofía Celi, Kyle Den Hartog, and Hamed Haddadi at Brave Research.
Age verification is increasingly positioned as a prerequisite for accessing online services, driven by regulatory policies and the expanding scope of content moderation. Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) are often advanced as a technical remedy, promising privacy-preserving attestations of age or eligibility. Yet their deployment in practice exposes both conceptual and practical limits. Credential-based systems anchored in centralized authorities risk exclusion, create new control points, and threaten user privacy. At the same time, many ZKP proposals remain fragile, raising concerns about soundness, composability, and long-term sustainability. Beyond cryptographic guarantees, persistent challenges of content categorization, revocation, and interoperability illustrate that ZKPs alone cannot resolve the broader socio-technical problems of age verification or ID verification.
Here, we examine these limits by highlighting failures in existing systems, unintended consequences of centralized credential frameworks, and risks arising from misapplied proofs. Our aim is not to dismiss ZKPs as a valuable tool, but rather to situate them within a broader architectural context: one that genuinely prioritizes user privacy, autonomy, and the open character of the web.
The settingRecent proposals from major technology platforms emphasize digitally verifiable credentials, often augmented with ZKPs, as the foundation for, for example, online age checks and access control. These frameworks envision users obtaining cryptographically signed attestations (e.g., of age, residency, or citizenship) from designated issuers, and then presenting them to services to prove eligibility. Similar cryptographic models are also being investigated in academic and industry contexts, particularly within blockchain-based identity systems. In particular, there are proposals for:
zk-TLS: systems, such as TLSNotary, DiStefano, Janus, Town crier, DECO (and others) which allow a user to commit to a TLS session transcript and later prove facts about their interaction with an unmodified web service (e.g., account balances), enabling the construction of web-based oracles for smart contracts.
zk-Authorization: tools like zkLogin and zkCreds, which allow users to prove properties about a JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) from an OAuth or OpenID provider, without revealing the token itself.
zk-Compilation: proofs that an executable or bytecode (e.g., ELF, WASM) corresponds to a known source and compiler toolchain, supporting provenance and auditability.
zk-Optimization: systems such as Otti allow proving that a private optimization process (e.g., university admissions) was computed according to committed policies and inputs, without revealing the inputs.
zk-Middleboxes: given a commitment to network protocol streams (e.g., DNS), a sender can prove that traffic satisfies policies without revealing its content.
Despite these advances, credential-based systems (even with ZKPs) remain limited in both theory and deployment. In the following sections, we examine these limitations, focusing on risks of exclusion and centralization, some fragility of current ZKP constructions, and the unresolved socio-technical challenges of categorization, revocation, and interoperability.
The limitsAs noted, despite the advances, credential-based systems remain limited in both theory and deployment. Their shortcomings are not confined to implementation details but reflect deeper tensions between cryptographic, security and privacy guarantees, and the socio-technical realities of identity and access control. To understand these challenges, it is useful to distinguish between several categories of limitations:
Security fragility: The use of ZKPs in deployed systems remains fragile. Many protocols described as “zero-knowledge” in the literature fail to meet rigorous formal definitions: they may not actually provide zero-knowledge (and thus fail to preserve privacy), or they may lack soundness (and thus be forgeable). Even when definitions are met, composability guarantees are often absent, raising risks in complex system deployments. More research is needed to ensure that ZKPs used in production achieve their claimed properties, both through rigorously verified security proofs and through formal verification techniques. Implementation is also non-trivial: subtle vulnerabilities have been discovered even in well-audited systems, and optimizations can silently undermine core guarantees if they are not themselves carefully analyzed.
Insufficient privacy guarantees: ZKPs do not guarantee meaningful privacy unless applied carefully and correctly. For example, a proof that a user’s age lies in the range 20–21 may inadvertently disclose that the user is indeed 21. Similarly, the use of broader “tiers” (e.g., 20–25, 25–30, 30–40) may still enable linkage of content to constrained age ranges, undermining the intended privacy guarantees. In practice, even semantically “private” range proofs may leak significant information based on how they are constructed or interpreted.
This in turn creates new risks: when proofs are combined with other contextual signals such as the site where the credential is used, the identity of the credential issuer (e.g., a specific government) or the user’s location, the resulting tuple (credential origin, age range, geographic metadata) can uniquely identify individuals. In practice, this may provide more identifying information than the web currently exposes, enabling pervasive profiling and cross-site correlation under the guise of privacy-preserving verification.
Moreover, privacy loss can compound over time when multiple proofs are issued across a temporal sequence. For instance, a user who first proves their age is between 20 and 22, and then two months later proves they are over 21, has effectively disclosed a narrow interval for their exact date of birth. This temporal leakage highlights the need for systems to manage privacy through change, not just in isolated proofs, but across repeated interactions. Providing users with transparency about the cumulative privacy loss from sequences of attribute-based disclosures, and establishing baseline guarantees of unlinkability across sessions, will be essential to the safe deployment of such systems.
Furthermore, if not applied with appropriate scoping constraints, ZKP systems can devolve into a form of client-side scanning, where arbitrary attestations are made about the contents of data such as TLS transcripts, JWT tokens, or digital credentials. Such attestations may break the security or privacy guarantees of the underlying protocol or data structure. It must therefore be verifiable, and externally auditable, that the statement being proved does not enable indirect deanonymization or policy circumvention.
Centralization and inclusion risks: Many digital credential systems depend on a small set of recognized issuers, such as governments, telecom providers, or identity verification companies. Government-issued credentials (e.g., driver’s licenses, identity cards, passports) are often considered “high assurance” and come with built-in revocation mechanisms. However, these revocation features can introduce a “phone home” problem: every time a credential is verified, the issuer may be contacted, allowing them to track where and how often the credential is being used. Even if a relying party is free to trust any issuer, in practice they usually only accept a narrow set of “high assurance” credentials. This gives one or two issuers visibility into, and metadata about, every credential presentation. For example, if a site requests a fresh credential at every visit, even without storing it, the issuer may still learn how often the user returns through the verification checks.
Exclusion is another major concern. If a relying party only accepts a limited set of credentials, such as formal IDs, residence permits, or institutional affiliations, people without them are locked out of services. Today, an estimated 850 million people worldwide lack formal identification. In such systems, reliance on a small pool of high-assurance credentials risks reinforcing the digital divide. Moreover, if access to services or publishing rights online depends on the real-time validity of a credential, a handful of issuers effectively gain gatekeeping power. Revocation could occur for benign reasons (e.g., an unpaid fine leading to a suspended driver’s license) or for more concerning ones (e.g., censorship, where an issuer disagrees with the credential holder’s published content). Current regulations mandating digital credential use often fail to address these centralization and exclusion risks. Without safeguards, credential issuers could become powerful control points over who can participate in key aspects of the digital ecosystem.
Parsing and semantic mismatch: A central, and often overlooked, limitation of current ZKP-based systems is the semantic gap between low-level data (e.g., raw byte streams) and the structured data over which the proof is supposed to operate. Most systems implicitly assume that inputs are already well-formed, for instance, that a JSON object respects its grammar or that a credential conforms to a standard syntax.
Without formal guarantees of correct parsing, however, this assumption can be exploited. Malformed or adversarially crafted inputs may be interpreted differently by the prover and the verifier, undermining soundness. For example, if a system assumes that JSON keys cannot contain escape characters, an attacker who violates this assumption may break the proof system’s security.
Some approaches attempt to mitigate this by revealing portions of the data for direct inspection. But this weakens the privacy guarantees that ZKPs are meant to provide. The challenge goes beyond checking whether a value (e.g., an age) appears in the data: it must also ensure that the data conforms to a grammar (is valid JSON, for instance) and that the value is located in the correct position within the document structure. A sound proof must establish, for example, that the age value is indeed bound to a top-level “age” field, and not hidden in a nested field or introduced through structural ambiguity.
Additional ecosystem limitations. Several further challenges exist:
Lack of protocol standardization: no widely adopted ZKP protocol stack exists across jurisdictions or vendors, hampering interoperability. Interoperability concerns: even compatible schemes vary in encoding, supported predicates, and proof formats, fragmenting the ecosystem. Revocation challenges: privacy-preserving revocation mechanisms are underdeveloped and hard to integrate with unlinkability guarantees. Trust ambiguity: even with ZKPs, the verifier must know whether to trust the issuer, reintroducing central trust dependencies. Poor user experience: asking users to configure selective disclosure or predicate proofs creates cognitive and UX burdens.The above concerns are not meant to dismiss the value of zero-knowledge proofs, which remain a powerful and essential tool in privacy-preserving system design. Rather, they highlight the risks of deploying ZKPs “out-of-the-box,” without rigorous formal verification, comprehensive security analysis, user-centered interface design, and thoughtful integration into the broader system architecture and society.
An ideaBeyond the technical limitations above, there is real potential in giving people more control and visibility over how a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) is created. Instead of a system silently generating a proof in the background, users could be allowed to see, and even adjust, the statement that is being proved.
For example, rather than passively approving “show my age” from a digital ID, a user could check exactly what is being revealed and confirm or edit it before the proof is made. More advanced systems could let the user decide which specific data fields get included. If any changes are made, the system can generate an additional proof showing that the modified data still matches the original information in a way that preserves the intended meaning.
In practice, this means that if a credential says someone is 27, the user could choose to reveal only that they are “over 25.” The system then proves, without revealing the actual number, that this claim is consistent with the real data.
This model promotes both privacy and user autonomy. People gain a clearer view of what is being proved, and they can filter or sanitize information before it is shared. Trust in the process can also be strengthened by relying on independent tools, verified software, or third-party checks to ensure the transformations are done correctly.
In short…Zero-knowledge proofs offer an important step toward privacy-preserving digital identity and age verification, but they are far from a silver bullet. As our analysis shows, current proposals face persistent limitations: fragility of cryptographic definitions and implementations, insufficient privacy guarantees in practice, risks of exclusion and centralization in credential frameworks, semantic ambiguities in parsing, and unresolved challenges of interoperability, revocation, and usability.
These limitations underscore that ZKPs cannot simply be “dropped in” to solve the socio-technical problems of online trust and access control. Instead, they must be embedded in broader architectures that explicitly safeguard user autonomy, minimize central points of control, and account for the lived realities of exclusion, censorship, and profiling. Achieving this will require not only advances in cryptographic research, but also careful systems design, inclusive policy frameworks, and transparent user interfaces.
In short, ZKPs should be seen not as a complete solution, but as one component within a larger ecosystem of privacy-preserving technologies. Only when combined with rigorous verification, accountable governance, and meaningful user control can they deliver on their promise to strengthen trust online without sacrificing the openness of the web.
Today we’re proud to unveil the newly redesigned Zcash Foundation website at zfnd.org—a reimagined digital home that reflects our evolution and reaffirms our commitment to advancing financial privacy infrastructure. With an intuitive, streamlined design, the site now makes it easier than ever for both long-time community members and newcomers to connect with our mission, dig deeper into our groundbreaking projects, engage at events or through conversations we convene, and discover meaningful ways to get involved. This refreshed digital presence offers clearer navigation, enhanced accessibility, and a more welcoming experience for exploring our work, impact, and the future of privacy technology.
What’s NewThe redesigned website puts our core work front and center, highlighting our key contributions to the Zcash ecosystem. Visitors can now easily discover information about Zebra, our consensus-compatible Zcash node implementation, and FROST for Zcash, our reference implementation of threshold Schnorr signatures and the frost-tools suite of development tools to facilitate integration of FROST into wallets.
The new site also features the Shielded Aid Initiative—a pioneering effort that brings Zcash’s privacy-preserving technology to humanitarian aid, protecting vulnerable recipients by ensuring privacy is a lifeline in crisis and development contexts.
We’ve streamlined information about our events and initiatives, including Zcon, our annual privacy-focused conference, Zcash Dev Summits, Zcon Voices, and our bi-weekly Zcash Arborist Calls. The new design ensures community members can quickly find opportunities to collaborate, innovate, and engage.
Transparency at the ForefrontStaying true to our commitment to transparency, we’ve made our financial documents, governance materials, and quarterly reports more readily accessible. This reflects our dedication to operating as an accountable public charity serving the broader financial privacy community.
Meet Our TeamThe redesigned site highlights updated profiles of our team members and Board of Directors. Meet the people advancing digital privacy—from our Executive Director, Alex Bornstein, to our Head of Engineering, Pili Guerra, and the engineering team developing cutting-edge cryptographic solutions. Each biography reflects the depth of talent and expertise driving our mission forward.
Mobile-First and User-CenteredBuilt with a mobile-first approach, the new website ensures seamless access across all devices. Whether you’re exploring our projects, reviewing transparency documents, or connecting with the Zcash community, the experience is optimized for clarity and ease of use.
Explore the New SiteWe invite the Zcash community and everyone interested in financial privacy to explore our redesigned website at zfnd.org. Discover how the Zcash Foundation is building privacy infrastructure and learn how you can get involved in supporting open financial networks.
As we continue to evolve, our website will remain a dynamic resource for the community, regularly updated with news, technical developments, and opportunities to engage. We’re excited to share this next chapter with you and look forward to your feedback as we work together to advance financial privacy for the public good.
The post Introducing the New Zcash Foundation Website appeared first on Zcash Foundation.
With the “Beehive,” Alex, Chris, and Nick are shaping the future of real-world security.
By Roelof Botha Published November 4, 2025Imagine you’re a night watchman for a self-storage facility, alone at your station at 2 a.m. A motion sensor goes off near the back fence, but a quick scan of your security cameras shows nothing. You head over to the area, calling the police on your way, but by the time you find the three cut padlocks in the last row of units, it’s too late. The thief has disappeared into the darkness—along with your customers’ belongings.
Security is a rising concern for owners of large outdoor properties, including data centers, stadiums, and warehouses, around the world. Theft, vandalism, and trespassing are costly not only in terms of repairs and insurance payments, but also reputation and lost business—and at public facilities like airports, the stakes are even higher. When you have miles of ground to patrol, cameras and human guards can only do so much, so quickly—and when you’re facing a security threat, every second counts.
Now imagine this, instead: within five seconds of that motion sensor trigger, a drone automatically takes off. It arrives at the fence long before you do—recording every second as you watch live. Humming overhead, the drone is impossible for the intruder to miss, and they flee before any damage is done.
This is the peace of mind made possible by Sunflower Labs, the company transforming how commercial campuses, critical industrial sites, and communities defend themselves. Sunflower’s “Beehive” is an AI-powered drone system that can patrol acres of properties with zero manual intervention and in almost any weather, detecting everything from people and vehicles to water leaks and fires. A new FAA approval ensures the system can operate across 99% of the U.S., keeping customers ahead of both current and planned future regulations. The system has the potential to become a core component in the future of physical security—and it’s a 10x cost advantage compared to traditional patrols.
NICK, CHRIS, AND ALEX WITH THE BEEHIVE.Sunflower co-founders Alex Pachikov, Chris Eheim, and Nick de Palézieux have designed an incredible product, combining resilient hardware with easy-to-use software and integrating with a host of existing security solutions. This intentional craftsmanship is no surprise, given the technical background of the founders and their team. Many Sunflower engineers come out of ETH Zürich—one of the best universities in the world for drone and robotics technology.
Customers are as impressed as we are with both the team and product. A Swiss railway system deterred thieves, graffiti artists, and trespassers. A community in Los Angeles improved coverage for its residents. A self-storage company uses Beehive to protect their facilities, check on maintenance issues, and more. And with this round of funding, Sunflower will leverage AI to take their already exceptional product to the next level, to deepen their partnerships with other security platforms, and to bring the beehive to an even larger global audience.
The future is bright for Alex, Chris, Nick, and their growing team—and thanks to them, it is more secure for us all.
Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #Consumer #Enterprise #Funding announcement Partnering with Sesame: A New Era for Voice News Read Partnering with Flow: The Agile Hardware Future News Read Partnering with Rillet By Julien Bek, Roelof Botha 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 Sunflower Labs: Your Autonomous Eye in the Sky appeared first on Sequoia Capital.
The post How Resolve AI is Building Agents to Keep the World’s Software Running appeared first on Greylock.
Denmark’s Justice Minister has confirmed the withdrawal of the nation’s controversial draft law that aimed to mandate the scanning of electronic communications, including those on end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) platforms. The proposal, known widely as “Chat Control,” was intended as a tool in the fight against child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) but sparked an intense backlash from privacy advocates and fellow EU member states.
Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard announced late last week that his office would no longer push for the mandatory scanning requirement, opting instead to support a model for voluntary CSAM detection. The decision follows days of silence and was solidified after the German government publicly announced it would not support the measure, effectively tanking the Danish effort within the European Council presidency.
The proposed legislation would have forced technology companies to actively search all private messages for illegal content, a move critics denounced as unprecedented mass surveillance. Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation, was a prominent voice against the measure, stating it would be a “free-for-all” that opened up the confidential communications of everyone from officials to activists. Signal had previously threatened to exit the European market entirely if the provision was adopted.
A Temporal Privacy WinWhile the proposal’s withdrawal is being hailed as a victory for digital rights and encryption, the relief may be temporal. Minister Hummelgaard stressed that the current model, which allows for voluntary scanning, is set to expire in April.
“This will mean that the search warrant will not be part of the EU presidency’s new compromise proposal, and that it will continue to be voluntary for the tech giants to search for child sexual abuse material,” Hummelgaard said.
However, he immediately followed this by underscoring the urgency of finding an alternative: “Right now we are in a situation where we risk completely losing a central tool in the fight against sexual abuse of children. That’s why we have to act no matter what. We owe it to all the children who are subjected to monstrous abuse.”
The minister’s remarks indicate that while the most privacy-invasive form of the legislation has been shelved for now, the debate over how to balance child safety with fundamental digital privacy rights is far from over. The EU will likely continue to pursue a replacement framework before the April deadline, suggesting that the privacy reprieve achieved by withdrawing the Chat Control proposal is only a temporary win until a new, potentially less intrusive, but still contentious, solution is introduced.
PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
Denmark Withdraws Controversial ‘Chat Control’ Proposal was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
The Zcash Foundation (ZF) is proud to announce the appointment of Alex Bornstein as Executive Director, effective November 1, 2025.
Since stepping in as Interim Executive Director in March 2025, Alex has led ZF through a pivotal chapter—revitalizing partnerships, strengthening community trust, and sharpening the Foundation’s strategic focus for measurable impact. His leadership has contributed to a renewed energy, openness, and sense of collaboration across the Zcash ecosystem.
As one ZF Board Member shared:
“Alex stepped up as interim CEO during uncertain times and quickly became pivotal in restoring trust and cooperation across our organizations. His deep expertise in Foundation operations, clear communication, and long-term Zcash vision make him the right person to lead ZF into its next chapter.”
Guided by the principles of coordination, communication, and execution, Alex has built an internal culture of clarity and collaboration that positions the Foundation, and its contributions to the broader Zcash ecosystem, for lasting success.
Looking ahead, Alex outlined an ambitious and unifying vision:
“Zcash’s future will be defined by bold coordination and relentless execution. Our strength lies in collaboration—with the Foundation’s world-class engineers, our partners at ECC, Shielded Labs, ZCG, QEDIT, ZecHub, and the global community driving innovation every day. Together, we’re not just sustaining momentum, we’re pioneering the next generation of privacy technology. The world needs privacy that scales, and Zcash will deliver it.”
In the months ahead, under Alex’s leadership, the Zcash Foundation will continue to seek new funding beyond the Zcash ecosystem, drive the adoption of Zebra as the network’s primary node implementation, and contribute to the work required to deprecate zcashd—a critical milestone in strengthening Zcash’s technical foundation. ZF will also expand the Shielded Aid Initiative, execute its 2026 event strategy, and chart the next phase of ZF’s contribution to ecosystem growth, ensuring that vision, coordination, and execution continue to drive measurable, real-world impact.
The Zcash Foundation extends its gratitude to the community for its trust and engagement throughout this transition. With Alex at the helm, ZF enters a new era of focus, unity, and innovation—working hand in hand with partners and contributors to shape a future where privacy empowers everyone.
The post Board Appoints Alex Bornstein as Executive Director appeared first on Zcash Foundation.
David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto Czar, joins Marc, Ben, and Erik to explore what's really happening inside the Trump administration's AI and crypto strategy. They expose the regulatory capture playbook being pushed by certain AI companies, explain why open source is America's secret weapon, and detail the infrastructure crisis that could determine who wins the global AI race.
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These reports outline ongoing development activities, testing efforts, and recent pull requests (PRs) related to PIVX core and PIVX Labs projects, including integrations, infrastructure deployments, and code improvements.
PIVX Core DevelopmentPrivate Repository Activities (Currently Private):
- Testing BTC PayServer PIVX Plugin (based on Zcash implementation) for seamless payment processing.
- Testing WooCommerce Plugin for PIVX to enable e-commerce integrations.
- Developing API for CardStorm to enhance payment reliability using PIVX.
Infrastructure and Tooling Updates
Deploying Additional Infrastructure to SPMT/PET4L:
- New NGINX proxy setup for improved performance and security.
- Repository: PIVX-NGINX-Proxy
Pull Requests and Code ChangesPET4L Repository
Remove PING Function:
PR to eliminate the PING functionality for streamlined operations.
Link: PET4L/pull/28
GitHub Actions Updates:
Enhancements to CI/CD workflows for better automation and reliability.
Link: PET4L/pull/27
SPMT Repository
Superceding PR for SSL Fixes with Certifi Package:
Updates to resolve SSL issues using the Certifi package for certificate management. Link: PIVX-SPMT/pull/77
GitHub Actions Updates:
Improvements to build and deployment pipelines.
Link: PIVX-SPMT/pull/76
MyPIVXWallet PRs
Wallet breakdown for multi account
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/598
Fix short wallet names displaying incorrectly in the UI and add maxlength
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/600
Fix export transactions not working properly
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/601
Fix ledger no longer working
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/602
Improve ledger address confirmation screen
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/603
Make the wallet selection popup look like the design by meerkat
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/604
Fix create wallet sometimes not registering the click
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/605
Fix some vue warnings
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/606
Potentially fix a sync bug
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/607
Resync when shield sync fails
https://github.com/PIVX-Labs/MyPIVXWallet/pull/608
PIVXNodeController PRs
Create shield.bin and shield.json when they don’t exist and fix a couple of bugsVector Bot SDK Example Fixes
A number of small fixes that didn’t make it as their own PRs were done. A basic list of what happened is as follows: Changing from manual imports to importing from crate.io, syntax changes, minor upgrades that kept the SDK on the latest version, changes and rewrites to the readme.(https://github.com/Luke-Larsen/Vector-SDK-Example/commits/main/)
Vector Bot SDK — (Starting work for groups)
This has been started but isn’t near completion yet and is still going through the creation and testing phases. (https://github.com/VectorPrivacy/Vector-SDK/tree/mls-groups)
Pulse Notifier
This was a project that was created to send messages to the team in the event that the Pulse detected something as down.
(https://github.com/Luke-Larsen/Pulse-Notifier/commits/main/)
Closed source bot work
The progress on the closed source bot has slowed due to the need to push the vector bot sdk forward. Groups are a major part of what we need for vector and due to that most other things have fallen lower on the priority list. Once the new SDK version is out with MLS we will resume this work and get a BETA out.
Summary:
PIVX and PIVXLabs are quietly rewriting the rules of blockchain privacy. While the rest of crypto chases hype, we keep our heads down and build so that our users and community have the best tools in front of them to keep their crypto safe and secure.
PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
PIVX Core and PIVXLabs Development Reports was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
As global tensions rise, AI and autonomy are transforming how nations prepare for conflict.
In this episode, Horacio Rozanski, CEO of Booz Allen Hamilton and Gary Shield, CEO of Shield AI join Erik Torenberg to discuss how technology, speed, and public–private partnerships are reshaping America’s defense strategy.
They cover lessons from Ukraine and Taiwan, the rise of autonomous systems, and why the future of warfare will be defined by software, agility, and innovation.
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Time for your PIVX update! Quickly catch up on all the important market insights and key community news in this weekly recap.
Market Pulse Masternode Count: The number of active PIVX masternodes continued its two-week upward trend, climbing from 2,033 to 2,047. Importantly, this growth has occurred amidst rising prices, suggesting sustained conviction and demand among operators despite the increased cost. Price Check: PIVX reversed the trend this week, demonstrating strong upward momentum while the rest of the crypto market suffered bearish pressure. The asset saw dramatic daily price action, with its Daily USD Value spanning $0.17 to $0.26 and briefly spiking to an impressive $0.30. This positive movement successfully lifted the weekly average price from $0.1744 to $0.2209. Trading Buzz: PIVX saw impressive trading action alongside its upward price move this week, resulting in a total weekly volume soaring to over $131 million. This figure dramatically dwarfs last week’s $30 million, reflecting a massive surge in interest and liquidity.PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.
PIVX Weekly Pulse (Oct 24th, 2025 — Oct. 30th, 2025) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
In this closing keynote from a16z’s Runtime conference, General Partner Erik Torenberg speaks with our firm’s cofounders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on highlights from throughout the conference, the current state of LLM capabilities, and why despite huge capex, AI is not a bubble.
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This is the third post in a series about security and privacy challenges in agentic browsers. This vulnerability research was conducted by Artem Chaikin (Senior Mobile Security Engineer), and was written by Artem and Shivan Kaul Sahib (VP, Privacy and Security).
Following up from our blog post last week on additional vulnerabilities in AI browsers, we’re now sharing details on a prompt injection attack we found in Opera Neon. We responsibly disclosed this vulnerability to Opera, but withheld sharing publicly at Opera’s request, to give them time to fix the vulnerability.
Like we’ve said in our blog posts about easily-exploitable attacks in various browsers, indirect prompt injection is a serious and unsolved security problem facing all AI browsers that take actions on the user’s behalf. It’s heartening to now see other browsers acknowledge it as such, and we’re glad to have helped push the envelope on this. As always, we appreciate the thoughtful feedback we’ve gotten on our security research, and the changes browser vendors have made (and will continue to make) to keep all users safe on the Web.
Prompt injection via hidden HTML elements in Opera NeonOpera Neon’s AI assistant processes webpage content to answer user queries, but fails to appropriately treat page contents as untrusted when constructing prompts for its LLM. Attackers can embed malicious instructions in hidden HTML elements and other non-rendered markup that remains invisible to users but is fully accessible to the AI assistant.
In this attack, we demonstrated extracting the user’s email address from their Opera account page and leaking it to a third-party. However, the same attack could be used to extract other even more sensitive information like credit card details if the user happens to be logged into their bank account.
Attack demonstration: How the attack works:Setup: An attacker embeds malicious instructions in the website’s HTML, including zero-opacity elements hidden from visual rendering. In our attack, the hidden instructions are embedded in a <span> element styled with "opacity: 0" (i.e. hidden to the user).
Trigger: User navigates to the attacker’s webpage and asks the AI assistant to summarize or analyze the page content.
Injection: The browser extracts and processes the entire HTML structure, including the hidden malicious instructions embedded in the HTML.
Exploit: The injected commands instruct the AI to use its browser tools maliciously. In our attack, the instructions ask the AI to go to the user’s Opera account page, extract the user’s email address, and leak it to the attacker’s server. The browser happily complies with this request.
Disclosure timelineOpera Neon is still in Early Access, and not available to the general public. We’ve been coordinating with their security team on responsible disclosure, and are only releasing this after verifying that their fix works.
October 14, 2025: Prompt injection via hidden HTML elements issue reported to Opera via Bugcrowd.
October 17, 2025: Issue closed by Opera as “Not Applicable”.
October 20, 2025: Opera reached back out to Brave saying the vulnerability report was dismissed accidentally, and asked Brave to temporarily hold off on disclosing publicly while they investigated. We complied.
October 21, 2025: Opera reached out to Brave and confirmed that they have deployed a fix. Our follow-up testing confirmed the vulnerability appears to be patched.
October 23, 2025: Opera publicly released details about the vulnerability we found in a blog post.
Impact and implicationsSimply asking for a summary on a website with hidden instructions can result in a cross-origin leak when using AI browsers: attacker website → auth.opera.com → attacker website, as we showed in this attack. This is similar to how we were able to extract a Comet user’s email address from their Perplexity account page when the user summarized a Reddit post. The AI agent controlling the browser is effectively treated as you. It can read pages you’re already logged into, pull data, and perform actions across different sites, even if those sites are supposed to be isolated from one another.
This is terrifying when you consider everything you do in the browser. Banking, work, and email are obvious examples, but consider everything else you do online: articles you read and websites you visit. A browser sees everything you do on the Web, and is in many ways an accurate representation of who you are. It’s never been clearer that privacy on the Web is critical. This is precisely why Brave is a user-first, privacy-by-default browser, with our focus on blocking third-party trackers and ads, and with a whole suite of privacy features.
As mentioned before, we’re working carefully with our research and security teams on how to bring agent mode browsing safely to our 100 million users, and we will have more to announce in the coming weeks.
The Panther ecosystem is gearing up for its trusted setup ceremony, a crucial step in launching its Mainnet on Polygon. And, the Panther DAO is seeking volunteers to help Panther Protocol conduct its trusted setup ceremony successfully. This is an opportunity for everyone to contribute to Panther and ensure its Mainnet is decentralized and secure.
If you want to participate, feel free to fill in the Google Form here. Otherwise, read on to learn more about what a trusted setup ceremony is and why it is needed to launch Panther’s Mainnet.
What is a trusted setup ceremony?A trusted setup ceremony involves multiple participants to ensure no one can compromise Panther’s security, and is needed to generate the cryptographic keys of the protocol. It generates public parameters used to create and verify proofs without revealing sensitive data. It only takes one honest participant for the proving system to be secure. Each participant contributes randomness to the process, ensuring no single entity possesses the complete "toxic waste" that could potentially compromise the system's security. The ceremony is sequential—each participant builds on the previous contribution. This approach ensures the security of the final parameters as long as at least one participant is honest.
Why is this important for PantherThe Trusted Setup Ceremony is crucial because it ensures the integrity and security of Panther’s zero-knowledge proofs. If the setup is compromised, malicious actors could potentially generate a fraudulent proof, undermining the protocol. By involving many unrelated, geographically distributed parties in the ceremony, the risk that the entire ceremony will be composed of bad actors is minimized. Therefore, the Panther DAO invites its members, the broader privacy DeFi community, and builders to participate!
How long will it take and what do I need to doIt will take 5-15 minutes to set up your environment and another 5-10 minutes of uninterrupted time when it's your turn to participate in the ceremony. We suggest checking your availability so you can be responsive during your turn, to avoid delays for the other participants. We will get back to the participants with the exact date and time of the ceremony.
The technical details and participation guidelines can be found on GitHub.
About Panther Protocol FoundationPanther 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
In this conversation from a16z’s Runtime conference, Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and CIO of Atreides Management, joins David George, General Partner at a16z, to unpack the macro view of AI: the trillion-dollar data center buildout, the new economics of GPUs, and what this boom means for investors, founders, and the global economy.
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Sci-fi titan Neal Stephenson, whose Snow Crash coined the term 'metaverse' and Cryptonomicon, which foreshadowed crypto in 1999, joins Friederike to discuss his "hard sci-fi" method: building immersive, consistent worlds, not prophecy. He's now co-founder of Lamina1, aiming to restore Web1's ethos and give creators IP sovereignty with direct micropayments, breaking free from Web2's "walled gardens."
Neal unpacks Web3's promise like "intent-casting" flipping ad models while citing its critical traps: abysmal UX, criminal stigma, and the "soul-crushing" risk of just upgrading incumbent systems.
Spotlighting Lamina 1's game "Artifact," he argues Web3's true success will be measured when the technology becomes invisible and safe, proving its value by restoring sovereignty to its users and creators, rather than through speculative hype.
Topics discussed in this episode:
(00:00) Introduction to Decentralization and Blockchain (01:20) The Role of Storytelling in Technology Prediction (03:48) The Balance of Optimism and Pessimism in Fiction (06:27) Web3: Promises and Pitfalls (08:36) The Evolution of the Web: From Decentralization to Centralization (13:37) Metrics for a Decentralized Web (15:55) Lamina One: A New Vision for the Metaverse (23:44) Creating a Financial Layer for the Creator Economy (25:08) Legal Implications of Smart Contracts (27:38) The Strength of Smart Contracts (31:04) Decentralization vs. Centralization in the Creator Economy (36:21) The Decline of Centralized Platforms (41:23) Financialization and the Creative Economy (45:47) The Future of Web3 and User Experience (51:17) Potential Failure Modes of Web3Links mentioned in this episode:
Neal Stephenson, Co-founder Lamina1: https://x.com/nealstephenson Lamina 1: https://lamina1.com/homeSponsors:
Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at gnosis.ioThis episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.
AI isn’t just changing software, it’s causing the biggest buildout of physical infrastructure in modern history.
In this episode, Raghu Raghuram (a16z) speaks with Amin Vahdat, VP and GM of AI and Infrastructure at Google, and Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, about the unprecedented scale of what’s being built — from chips to power grids to global data centers.
They discuss the new “AI industrial revolution,” where power, compute, and network are the new scarce resources; how geopolitical competition is shaping chip design and data center placement; and why the next generation of AI infrastructure will demand co-design across hardware, software, and networking.
The conversation also covers how enterprises will adapt, why we’re still in the earliest phase of this CapEx supercycle, and how AI inference, reinforcement learning, and multi-site computing will transform how systems are built and run.
Resources:
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Google DeepMind’s new image model Nano Banana took the internet by storm.
In this episode, we sit down with Principal Scientist Oliver Wang and Group Product Manager Nicole Brichtova to discuss how Nano Banana was created, why it’s so viral, and the future of image and video editing.
Resources:
Follow Oliver on X: https://x.com/oliver_wang2
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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