Technology Ring

Why upgrade if PQ signatures are not yet proven? The dirty secret of efforts to upgrade blockchains to post-quantum cryptography is that no one is sure if  any  of them work. None of the signatures being considered by major blockchains as quantum-resistant upgrades have been 100% proven to work. Until a quantum computer is invented, we won’t know for certain if they can successfully protect against an attack. Some may fall to an attack even before Q Day using existing computer technology. The National Institute of Standards and Technology tested 69 post-quantum candidate algorithms, and two of them — Rainbow and SIKE — were broken with classical computers during testing. The three digital signature schemes it recommends are its best guess as to which ones are most likely to survive a quantum attack. It selected the lattice-based CRYSTALS-Dilithium (ML-DSA) as the primary scheme, another lattice-based scheme called Falcon (FN-DSA) for use cases that demand smaller signatures an...

Animoca Brands teams up with Ava Labs to bolster RWAs, digital identity (Avalanche) Gaming giant Animoca Brands has partnered with Ava Labs, the company behind the layer-1 blockchain Avalanche, in an effort to grow adoption of the network. The partnership will see Animoca deploy capital and provide strategic support to projects building on Avalanche, according to a statement on Thursday. Their initial focus will be to target the entertainment sector, real-world assets (RWAs) and digital identity. Ava Labs chief business officer, John Nahas, said the deal will also help Avalanche’s plans to expand into Asia and the Middle East. “Two regions seeing sustained growth in digital asset activity. We’re thrilled to collaborate on initiatives that improve user access and interoperability for applications building on Avalanche,” Nahas said. Omar Elassar, Animoca Brands’ head of global strategic partnerships, said that while identity integrations and RWAs will be major focuses, the broader aim is...

A US federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit that sought to hold Uniswap Labs and its founder Hayden Adams liable for scam tokens traded on the decentralized exchange (DEX).  Uniswap has been cleared of responsibility for third-party scammers. ( Hayden Adams ) Federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that the DEX cannot be held responsible for the actions of third-party token issuers. But that’s not the only court case or jurisdiction with implications for smart contract developers. Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, argues that the Uniswap ruling highlights a deeper tension between how US courts view decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure and how global standards expect platforms to manage illicit finance risks. In an interview with Cointelegraph Magazine, Chu discussed the implications of the Uniswap decision, how it compares with the prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, and why developers won’t always be beyond the reach of sta...

  In 2025, the 10 richest US billionaires gained nearly $700 billion in wealth over the course of the year,  according  to Oxfam. To put that in perspective, 1,000 Americans working for 32 years earn as much as these billionaires make in a single day. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. Over the past four decades, the wealthiest 1% of Americans have seen their average yearly income skyrocket to $731,492, while those in the bottom 20% have barely moved at just $33,000, US statistics show.  Cumulative income growth based on household income brackets ( Congressional Budget Office ) Inflation is one part of that equation. Over the past five years, while the consumer price index is up 24.3%, real average US hourly earnings are actually down 0.1%, meaning wages haven’t even kept up with inflation.  There are many reasons for the widening gap between rich and poor, but one of the major contributors was identified 300 years ago, long before the...