Snippings

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin talks about the “three transitions” needed to turn the platform into a mass-market service for what he calls “average users”. These are the: The scaling transition – everyone moving to rollups; The wallet transition – everyone moving to smart contract wallets; and the privacy transition – making sure privacy-preserving funds transfers are available, and making sure all of the other gadgets that are being developed (social recovery, identity, reputation) are privacy-preserving.

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At the heart of vTaiwan is Polis. This real-time system gathers, analyses, interprets and visually maps in clusters of consensus what large groups of participants think. It is used to address a host of important but generally under-the-radar issues such as copyright, bias and discrimination, due compensation, fair use, public service and broader societal impacts. Its allure lies in a simple yet profound design: people naturally gravitate towards finding common ground, rather than delving into divisive issues.

From: Democracy in the age of AI – RSA Journal – RSA.

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“A simple tap of the card can verify your identity, reducing the chances of a false decline,” Lowe said. “This also enhances experiences in call centers, where users can authenticate themselves before even speaking to an agent.”

From: Passwordless Future Key to Competing in Digital Economy.

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Circle became the first global stablecoin issuer to secure an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license, a prerequisite to offering dollar- and euro-pegged crypto tokens in the European Union (EU) under the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework. Armed with a license from the French banking regulatory authority, Circle Mint France will “onshore” the issuance of its euro-denominated EURC stablecoin to the EU and issue USDC from the same entity, the company said.

From: Stablecoin Issuer Circle Snags MiCA-Compliant Electronic Money Institution EMI License for EU.

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While Singapore already has bilateral real-time payment linkages with Thailand and India, they are separate systems and operated by distinct entities, such as PayNow-PromptPay for Thailand and PayNow-UPI for India.

Nexus, on the other hand, is designed to standardise the way domestic instant payment service providers connect to one another. Rather than an operator building custom connections for every new country to which it connects, the operator only needs to make one connection to the NSO.

From: Payment system to let S’poreans send money instantly via mobile phones to 4 countries | The Straits Times.

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The British engineering company Arup has confirmed it was the victim of a deepfake fraud after an employee was duped into sending HK$200m (£20m) to criminals by an artificial intelligence-generated video call.

From: UK engineering firm Arup falls victim to £20m deepfake scam | Engineering | The Guardian.

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But is the industry at risk of overplaying the quality of its “human” support — and underplaying recent technological improvements?

“We all like to think our listening and empathy skills are too advanced to be replicated. But advice businesses historically struggle to scale up due to the personal nature of advice and the inconsistency that is inherent in human nature,” says Ian Millward of Candid Financial Advice. “Ultimately, every question that ever needs to be asked has been asked. AI can model outcomes and provide the most proven answer to every question in an incredibly consistent way.”

As the technology progresses, there is increasing scope for AI to help human advisers understand their customers more deeply.

From: Wealth managers need to adopt AI — and fast.

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Key Concepts of ZKP:

Completeness: If the statement is true, an honest verifier will be convinced by an honest prover.
Soundness: If the statement is false, no cheating prover can convince the honest verifier that it is true, except with some small probability.
Zero-knowledge: If the statement is true, no verifier learns anything other than the fact that the statement is true.

From: Zero Knowledge Proofs in Digital Identity | Extrimian.

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Millennials have also emerged as prime targets for cybercriminals, receiving 37.5% of phishing emails. This is particularly true within the finance, legal and healthcare sectors. Social engineering tactics, including personalized attacks timed around events like Valentine’s Day, further underscore the evolving landscape of cyber-threats.

From: Quishing Attacks Jump Tenfold, Attachment Payloads Halve – Infosecurity Magazine.

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Days after claiming that it had hacked the US Federal Reserve, the Russia-linked LockBit ransomware gang has posted stolen customer data from Evolve Bank & Trust on the dark web.

From: Evolve Bank confirms data stolen by ransomware gang.

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