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A PESSIMISTIC VIEW ON AI

COINBASE

A US federal court ruled yesterday that the SEC acted unfairly in denying Grayscale’s request to turn its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust product into an ETF. The long-awaited decision gave a big boost to prices across the board in the crypto market and even to crypto-related public equities like Coinbase. While the ruling was favorable, it still doesn't guarantee immediate ETF approvals. Not only does this help Grayscale’s case as it tries to launch an ETF, but it also likely increases the chances that the spot BTF applications from TradFi giants like Blackrock and Fidelity will go through as well.

Yesterday, the SEC submitted a sealed motion containing classified information in its case against cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The unusual move has sparked speculation about potential new allegations against the company, which is already facing charges of offering unregistered securities to the public. Experts suggest the SEC could be trying to avoid interfering with a separate criminal investigation - potentially by the DOJ - or protect a witness or company at risk.

POLYGON LAUNCHES 'CHAIN DEVELOPMENT KIT'

Polygon has unveiled its Chain Development Kit, a software suite that allows developers to launch their own L2 solutions using zk technology. The CDK offers infinite scalability and unified liquidity, while enabling easy settlement to Ethereum and is already being used in numerous projects. The CDK is expected to usher in an era of open-source progress and innovative L2 solutions.

CIRCLE LAUNCHES USDC STABLECOIN ON MERCADO PAGO IN CHILE

Fintech firm Circle has teamed up with Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre to introduce the stablecoin USDC on Mercado Pago, its online payment platform, in Chile. This move aims to increase the utilization of cryptocurrencies and the US dollar in a country where the currency isn't often accepted. It also marks another step into crypto for Mercado Libre, which started accepting cryptocurrencies as payments in 2021.

PROOF OF MEOW: HOW ZK-VM WORKS

This article simplifies the concept of a Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine, software that validates that a program has been executed correctly, with a lighthearted example, “Proof of Meow.” It outlines the process of program compilation to bytecode, execution inside the VM generating an execution trace, and the role of the prover and verifier. The piece also shows how these principles apply to the Ethereum Virtual Machine in ZK-Rollups.

INSIGHTS FROM A CRYPTO USER ACTIVITY SURVEY

A recent blockchain user activity survey revealed some surprising findings. Despite Ethereum's popularity, 17% of participants in the survey had never used it. Similarly, 34% never transacted in Bitcoin. The Cardano community showed up in surprisingly large numbers with 6,300+ respondents, a bigger group of participants than any other chain in the survey. Surprisingly, participants of the survey had hardly used Litecoin at all, despite its high ranking in daily active users on DeFiLlama. The BNB chain had more users and a higher share of participants who had used the chain than Solana and Avalanche, while Ethereum remains in pole position amongst all the chains.

TETHER LEANING ON BAHAMAS-BASED BRITANNIA AS US BANKS CUT CRYPTO TIES

Private bank Britannia Bank & Trust has reportedly recently started working with stablecoin issuer Tether. This relationship allows Tether to make dollar transfers, strengthening its access to traditional banking systems. Tether's banking relations have largely remained undisclosed, which has sparked industry speculation over the years. Despite facing regulatory hurdles and allegations of misleading investors about its reserves, Tether has been gaining significant share of the stablecoin market this year.

THE MANY LAYERS OF THE SEC’S FIRST NFT ENFORCEMENT ACTION

The SEC is treating NFTs as a security for the first time in its recent enforcement action against Impact Theory, a Tom Bilyeu company. This article explains how NFTs in their basic form are not necessarily a security. However, it goes on to explain that it could be logical to conclude an NFT is a security when issuers begin to make promises about what they will do to increase the value of the NFT over time.

X GRANTED MONEY TRANSMISSION LICENSE

X has been granted a currency transmission license (the type that would be required to process crypto transactions). However, it’s not clear whether this is for crypto or not as the same type of license would be required for fiat transmission.

MOONPAY LAUNCHES INVESTMENT ARM MOONPAY VENTURES

MoonPay has launched MoonPay Ventures, an investment arm to support early-stage web3 and fintech firms through providing mentorship and support from crypto industry partners.

ZKSCI - IMPROVING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH WITH ZERO KNOWLEDGE PROOFS

This blog explains how Zero Knowledge Proofs could be leveraged for both decentralized science in scientific research and in the medical field for data privacy.

Solana is gaining momentum in liquid staking despite some initial hiccups. This article provides an update on the liquid staking ecosystem on Solana.

US FOOD DELIVERY SERVICE PURFOODS DISCLOSES DATA BREACH

Meal delivery service PurFoods says the personal and protected health information of more than 1.2 million individuals was stolen in a ransomware attack in early 2023.

HACKERS CAN SILENTLY GRAB YOUR IP THROUGH SKYPE

A security researcher has found that it’s possible to reveal a Skype app user’s IP address without the target needing to even click a link. Microsoft said the vulnerability does not need immediate attention.

US HACKS QAKBOT, QUIETLY REMOVES BOTNET INFECTIONS

The US government coordinated a crackdown on the QakBot malware family. The international team seized control of the botnet’s infrastructure and removed the malware from tens of thousands of infected devices.

DARKGATE - THREAT BREAKDOWN JOURNEY

A new malspam campaign has been observed deploying an off-the-shelf malware called DarkGate. It leverages hijacked email threads to trick recipients into downloading the malware. The attack uses phishing to direct users to an MSI payload subject to certain conditions. This article breaks down how this malware works and the technicalities behind it.

PIVOTING CLOUDS IN AWS ORGANIZATIONS

This is part 2 of a series on pen-testing AWS organizations. The first part of the series provided an overview of AWS organizations and some of the “easy wins.” Part 2 covers newer and more advanced AWS security mechanisms.

USING HASHICORP VAULT TO DYNAMICALLY CREATE MYSQL CREDENTIALS

A tutorial on how to configure Hashicorp Vault (and a MySQL database) to dynamically create time-limited credentials for a MySQL database.

NOSEY PARKER

Nosey Parker is a command-line tool that finds secrets and sensitive information in textual data.

AMAZON GUARDDUTY ADDS NEW ORGANIZATION MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES

Amazon GuardDuty announced a new capability to allow Delegated Admins of an AWS Organization to enable GuardDuty features for all new and existing members of the organization.

PROMPT INJECTION PRIMER FOR ENGINEERS

A detailed overview of Prompt Injection that seeks to explain what it is, what the potential impact of prompt injection is, and how it can be prevented. A PDF version of the primer is available in the repo.

STATE OF CYBER INSURANCE 2023

The survey results find that most organizations are not approaching cyber insurance with the same diligence – they are simply looking to get covered. What they’re not checking is whether the policy they had last year is what they need now, or if their policy changed at renewal. This ‘cyber insurance gap’ could put a lot of organizations in a tough place when a cybersecurity incident occurs, and they want to utilize this financial safety net.

THE 2023 STATE OF RISK REDUCTION: A NEED FOR SPEED

Report providing fresh insight into how security pros handle the challenging vulnerability remediation life cycle from discovery to resolution. Some interesting tidbits include the time it takes to remediate critical security risks from start to finish (4 weeks) and the fact that 49% of security professionals do not know who to contact to fix or verify fixes.

AN AI THREAT MODELING FRAMEWORK FOR POLICYMAKERS

A thought piece from Daniel Miessler in which he proposes a framework for thinking about AI risks through the lens of threat modeling. His proposed model focuses on Actors, Technique, Harm, and Impact (ATHI). A GitHub repo is linked with community-sourced examples of ATHIs.

LINKEDIN AND X WILL WORK WITHOUT PASSWORDS IN THE FUTURE

LinkedIn and X look like the next major platforms to ditch passwords in favor of passkeys.

UKRAINE

Ukraine's cybersecurity success under Viktor Zhora was lauded at the Black Hat conference, but experts suggest that Western nations struggle to replicate their collaborative methods due to regulatory and legal hurdles.

GOOGLE DEBUTS DUET AI TO TACKLE CLOUD CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGES

Google debuted new AI-based solutions focused on enhancing the cybersecurity capabilities of the company's cloud and security solutions at Google Next, the tech giant's annual conference.

GOOGLE MADE A WATERMARK FOR AI IMAGES THAT YOU CAN’T EDIT OUT

Deepfakes are a real threat, and the industry still needs an effective detection method. Google wants to change that with SynthID, a technology capable of watermarking AI-generated images in an imperceptible way to the human eye. The watermark is embedded in the pixels of the image, but it doesn’t alter its appearance noticeably.

3 ESSENTIAL DESIGN TRENDS, SEPTEMBER 2023

3 new trends are emerging in web design: monochrome color schemes, magazine-style layouts, and navigation elements in a box. Monochrome color schemes look simple but are very hard to get right, especially when considering the accessibility and usability of a website. Navigation in a box can be sticky which helps improve the interactivity for users.

OPPENHEIMER & UX: FROM ATOMS TO EXPERIENCES

A designer’s work generally has a positive impact on the world, but sometimes products or services are designed that can have ripple effects of harm. Designers need to let go of theory as their ideas have tangible effects on the world. They need to stop and think about the “why” behind their work to truly understand its repercussions.

HOW TO RUN A BRAND WORKSHOP EFFECTIVELY

An exhaustive 5-step process to running a brand workshop. Starts with ideas for warmup tasks like Ridiculous Objects or Martians Have Landed and moves on to explain the purpose and benefits of exercises like The Golden Circle, Brand Persona, Landscape Positioning, Future Plans, Aspirational Brands, and Audience Personas.

FROM USER NEEDS TO USER DREAMS: FIND THE FUTURE OF YOUR PRODUCT

Organizations are urged to break free from user-centric thinking and consider visionary dreams during periods of cost-cutting and short-term focus. This calls for a shift from short-term metrics to exploring future possibilities to drive innovation and build resilient products and services that exceed user needs and expectations.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND EMBRACING DISCOMFORT

Amy Edmundson's work emphasizes the importance of psychological safety within teams for effective learning and performance. It encourages candid communication, embracing discomfort, and fostering an environment where conflict and discourse can be handled constructively for improved decision-making and growth.

JAMBOT BY FIGMA

No matter what you’re doing, Jambot is there to help you spark a first draft and make progress faster. With Jambot, you can create visual mindmaps with AI, take a multi-threaded approach to brainstorming, and generate ideas with teammates and ChatGPT in the same canvas.

VISUAL BUG REPORTING

Of course, designers should have a more visual way of reporting bugs! Toybox allows you and anyone to leave feedback directly on a website. The platform works on all browsers and can be installed on local, staging, and live websites.

COPY UNICODE CHARACTERS AND SYMBOLS

There are many more characters available than what is on your keyboard. This site organizes the most handy characters and symbols into a tidy grid. Choose the character you want and click to copy it.

PAIR WITH A CREATIVE

Do you have some time to spare or need someone for that crazy project of yours? Find partners or offer time to other creatives. Tell the platform about yourself, select the subjects you're interested in, and find the right person for you.

NOSTALGIA IN UX DESIGN

Our brains are wired to engage deeply with nostalgic moments. Could this be used as a feature for better user experiences? This article discusses the potential of nostalgic moments and how dangerous they can be if used in dark patterns.

A DEEP DIVE INTO SVG PATH COMMANDS

Looking at an illustration’s SVG code can be quite confusing because it mainly consists of many path elements each with a cryptic “d” attribute. This guide comes with practical examples and exercises to help understand SVG paths.

REBRAND

A collection of beautiful visual identities and rebrandings. Can be browsed by categories like automotive, corporate, entertainment, sports, and tech.

EXPERIENCING THE UNUSUAL

The ultimate empathy level is to experience it. This website will prompt you to think and act to understand how having some kind of impairment feels. Refresh it, and a new scenario is presented.

OPENAI LAUNCHES CHATGPT FOR ENTERPRISE

OpenAI has launched a corporate version of ChatGPT with added features and privacy safeguards called ChatGPT Enterprise.

A BREAKDOWN OF INSTACART FOLLOWING ITS IPO FILING

On Monday, we flagged that Instacart had filed for an IPO. Here’s a quick look into the revenue of the business and how ads stack up against ordering.

WHY B2B'S SHOULD OFFER A STARTUP DISCOUNT PROGRAM

Discounted programs can be an effective way of acquiring startup customers early in their journey at low costs. Startups ultimately become the enterprises of tomorrow. The hope is that as they scale, their usage of your product scales also. This article debunks some of the reservations you might have in your mind about discounted startup programs.

WHEN TO HIRE YOUR FIRST PM

Don’t be tempted to hire a product manager before $1m ARR. PMs don’t write code or sell the product - they help to make good decisions. You need resources and activity for a PM to create the most impact, and you likely won’t have that at the earliest stages.

A GUIDE TO EMBEDDED PAYMENTS WITH MAXIMILIAN LEHMANN

Traditionally only banks and fintech companies could distribute payments, but companies like Lightspeed, Toast, and Shopify are changing the game. We’re in the early innings of potential with embedded finance. If you’re a SaaS platform now, you can embed and monetize payments out of the gates.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A VP OF SALES AND A VP OF MARKETING

Marketing’s job is to make sales easier. You can only do this with an effective working relationship between the leaders of each function. When hiring for either role, simple questions allow you to test their opinions of the other function and get a window into their thinking and future potential.