Crypto

• Trump signed an executive order establishing a 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' from seized cryptocurrency assets, sparking mixed reactions from crypto enthusiasts and raising concerns over transparency while hosting a summit with crypto industry leaders.

• North Korean hackers from the Lazarus Group have laundered at least $300 million from a $1.5 billion ByBit cryptocurrency heist using sophisticated techniques to obscure transaction origins.

• U.S. law enforcement seized Russian crypto exchange Garantex's website in an international operation, citing links to darknet markets and sanctioned banks.

• World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project run by Trump's sons, invested $25 million in crypto assets before the White House Crypto Summit, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

• Sam Bankman-Fried was placed in solitary confinement after an unauthorized Tucker Carlson interview, reportedly seeking a Trump pardon while serving his prison sentence.

• The cryptocurrency industry faces internal conflicts despite surpassing $3 trillion in value and gaining political favor, struggling with regulatory challenges like the proposed GENIUS act affecting stablecoins.

• Project Liberty announced potential collaboration with Tim Berners-Lee's Solid at SXSW 2025, focusing on decentralized data control infrastructure.

• DoubleZero raised $28 million to build a global fiber network addressing blockchain performance bottlenecks by utilizing underutilized bandwidth from private fiber-optic operators.

Trump names two CBDC blockchains as part of the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve (bombthrower.com, 2025-03-05). Trump has proposed adding Ethereum and Ripple to the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, despite his previous opposition to CBDCs. The future implications raise questions about centralized cryptocurrencies' role in financial policy

The Role of NFTs Beyond Art: Real Estate, Gaming, and Identity Verification (cosmicmeta.io, 2025-03-07). NFTs are redefining ownership in real estate, gaming, and identity verification through blockchain technology, enabling tokenization, enhanced interoperability, and secure digital identities, thereby transforming traditional processes in these sectors

Puppet Master, 1989 (chrisdeluca.me, 2025-03-08). Chris DeLuca's blog features a collection of interesting content from around the web, discussing topics like responsive design, music, food politics, and documenting crypto fails, utilizing RSS and JSON feeds

The Precious and Arcane (an excerpt) (seanbonner.com, 2025-03-05). Sean Bonner reflects on his punk music journey, from mixtapes and zines to collecting records and toys, culminating in his exploration of NFTs and how they reshape art, ownership, and derivative culture

How Monero Fulfilled Satoshi's Promise (zola.ink, 2025-03-07). Monero utilizes technologies like Ring Signatures, RingCT, and Dandelion++ to achieve untraceability and privacy, fulfilling Satoshi's vision of cash as a decentralized digital currency while maintaining transaction anonymity

Zero-Knowledge Proofs: How They’re Making Blockchain More Secure (cosmicmeta.io, 2025-03-10). Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) enhance blockchain security via privacy-preserving transactions, supporting tools like zk-SNARKs and zk-Rollups for confidentiality, scalability, and compliance in financial and decentralized applications

Why Keys Matter (hodlbod.npub.pro, 2025-03-05). An exploration of cryptographic identity and digital signatures, including concepts like one-way functions and trapdoor functions, highlighting the contrast between certificate authorities and self-sovereign identities

Mutable global state in Solana (mina86.com, 2025-03-09). Solana's lack of mutable global state challenges smart contract development. A custom allocator approach allows mutable states and enhances programs via improved memory management and features over Solana's default allocator

From Liquid to the Bitcoin blockchain - SideSwap vs. Boltz (anitaposch.com, 2025-03-06). Anita Posch tests SideSwap and Boltz for moving funds from Liquid to the Bitcoin blockchain, highlighting differences in fees, custodial trust, and transaction confirmation times

Access Specification-Aware Software Transactional Memory Techniques for Efficient Execution of Smart Contract Transactions (arxiv:cs, 2025-03-05). SupraSTM, a novel specification-aware algorithm, enhances transaction execution efficiency on blockchain networks, outperforming Aptos' BlockSTM and PEVM by leveraging access specifications for improved performance in multi-core validator nodes

Boosting Blockchain Throughput: Parallel EVM Execution with Asynchronous Storage for Reddio (arxiv:cs, 2025-03-06). Reddio enhances blockchain throughput via batch-based parallel transaction execution, using direct state reading, asynchronous parallel node loading, and a pipelined workflow to overcome storage bottlenecks and maximize hardware utilization

LiteChain: A Lightweight Blockchain for Verifiable and Scalable Federated Learning in Massive Edge Networks (arxiv:cs, 2025-03-06). LiteChain is a lightweight blockchain solution for Federated Learning in Massive Edge Networks, employing a two-level clustering algorithm, CBFT consensus, and secure updates to enhance communication efficiency and security against attacks

Using "Failure Costs" to Guarantee Execution Quality in Competitive and Permissionless Order Flow Auctions (arxiv:econ, 2025-03-07). A new failure cost penalty enhances execution quality in decentralized blockchains by incentivizing bids and utilizing an on-chain escrow system, addressing challenges like adversarial bidding and ensuring minimum outcomes for participants

A Decentralized Sequencer and Data Availability Committee for Rollups Using Set Consensus (arxiv:cs, 2025-03-07). A decentralized arranger combines a sequencer and data availability committee using Set Byzantine Consensus, enabling scalable Layer 2 rollups without centralized control, ensuring transaction correctness and efficient data availability

Non-interactive Anonymous Tokens with Private Metadata Bit (eprint.iacr.org, 2025-03-06). The first non-interactive anonymous tokens with private metadata bit are introduced, utilizing Structure-preserving Signatures on Equivalence Classes and enabling efficient issuance without client-issuer interaction

Lite-PoT: Practical Powers-of-Tau Setup Ceremony (arxiv:cs, 2025-03-06). Lite-PoT introduces protocols to reduce costs in Powers of Tau setup ceremonies, using a fraud-proof method for on-chain operations and proof aggregation to enhance efficiency in zk-SNARK systems

DTL: Data Tumbling Layer. A Composable Unlinkability for Smart Contracts (arxiv:cs, 2025-03-06). Data Tumbling Layer (DTL) enables unlinkable data reuse across applications, ensuring security through no-one-more redemption, theft prevention, non-slanderability, and unlinkability, with applications including confidential payments and weighted voting

Split-n-Chain: Privacy-Preserving Multi-Node Split Learning with Blockchain-Based Auditability (arxiv:cs, 2025-03-10). Split-n-Chain, a split learning variant, enhances privacy in deep learning by preventing data-sharing among nodes and ensuring layer-wise parameter protection, while utilizing blockchain for computation auditability and maintaining efficiency in training

Consequences real & imaginary of “How to Prove False Statements: Practical Attacks on Fiat-Shamir” (building-babylon.net, 2025-03-07). The paper explores consequences of Fiat-Shamir's heuristic in non-interactive proofs, demonstrating failures in the GKR protocol while emphasizing the impacts on trust in blockchain applications