Search the archive

CHINA'S ZHIPU ROLLS OUT NEW AI MODEL TRAINED ON HUAWEI CHIPS

Zhipu's GLM-Image model is the first in China to be trained using Huawei's Ascend AI chips and Kunpeng processors.

CLAUDE AGENT SDK TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

This page contains the technical specification for the Claude Agent SDK, which provides programmatic access to Claude Code's agentic capabilities.

NIGHT IS NOW LISTED ON MAJOR EXCHANGES. LEARN MORE

SENATE UNVEILS UPDATED MARKET STRUCTURE BILL

A bipartisan market structure manager's amendment from Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott would ban paying interest or yield for holding payment stablecoins while allowing activity-based incentives tied to transacting, staking, liquidity provision, or posting collateral. The bill includes a Lummis-Wyden developer liability shield, drew threats from firms like Coinbase over tougher restrictions, omits a proposed ethics clause related to the Trump family's crypto ventures, and is heading to a committee markup as senators work to reconcile competing committee bills.

21SHARES LISTS BITCOIN-GOLD ETP ON LSE

21Shares' BOLD is a physically backed Bitcoin-plus-gold ETP on the London Stock Exchange that rebalances monthly by inverse historical volatility and charges a 0.65% annual fee. The ETP will give UK retail investors regulated exposure to bitcoin's growth and gold's stability now that the FCA has lifted its four-year retail ban and opened the market to wider crypto ETP access.

BNY MELLON'S TOKENIZED CASH: CUSTODIAL PATH TO TOKENIZED COLLATERAL

BNY Mellon is launching tokenized cash focused on collateral, margin, and intraday liquidity (not retail), enabling tokenized cash as collateral, real-time intraday settlement and reconciliation, and 24/7 availability with bank-deposit legal protections. This is a custodian-led route (joined by JPM and others and DTCC+Canton integrations) that could see capital markets in the US first adopt a tokenized collateral stack on semi-public networks like Canton before broader public-chain scaling.

ZKSYNC 2026 ROADMAP: NO SHORTCUTS

ZKsync's 2026 roadmap prioritizes institutional adoption through three core products: Prividium (privacy platform for regulated entities), ZK Stack (evolving into a unified appchain toolkit with cross-chain liquidity), and Airbender (universal zkVM proving standard). It is targeting the deployment of production systems with multiple regulated financial institutions serving “tens of millions rather than thousands” of users. Milestones include ZKsync Lite deprecation throughout 2026 and ZK token utility expansion in Q2 2026, transitioning from governance-only to economic utility via staking and burns.

3 WAYS CRYPTO GOES BEYOND CRYPTO IN 2026

a16z crypto outlines three ways cryptographic primitives will expand beyond traditional blockchain applications in 2026. Zero-knowledge proof technology is reaching a critical performance threshold, with zkVM provers dropping from 1,000,000X to approximately 10,000X overhead, enabling single GPUs to generate proofs of CPU execution in real-time by year-end and potentially unlocking verifiable cloud computing at scale. Prediction markets are expected to evolve through integration with LLM-based oracles for truth determination and AI agent traders that surface novel market signals. Crypto-native mechanisms like tokenized commitments and onchain verification histories are positioned to create new credibility.

VITALIK BUTERIN WARNS DECENTRALIZED STABLECOINS STILL HAVE DEEP FLAWS

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has publicly identified three fundamental technical challenges that remain unsolved in decentralized stablecoin design: price benchmarking mechanisms, oracle security vulnerabilities, and inadequate staking incentive models. Buterin characterized these as the “hardest problems” facing decentralized stablecoin infrastructure, suggesting they represent significant barriers to achieving the reliability required for mainstream adoption.

DISPELLING STABLECOIN BANKING MYTHS AS CONGRESS DEBATES REWARDS

Fears around stablecoins harming banks and credit are overstated. Stablecoin growth can increase bank deposits, lower borrowing costs, and benefit savers without meaningfully constraining lending. Competition from reward-bearing stablecoins would primarily pressure bank profitability rather than credit availability. Non-bank lenders already dominate US credit, meaning that restricting stablecoin rewards would unfairly favor bank shareholders over consumers as lawmakers revisit market structure legislation.

YC-BACKED KONTIGO VIOLATES VENEZUELA SANCTIONS

Y Combinator-backed fintech Kontigo allegedly violated US Venezuela sanctions by facilitating USDC-to-bolivar conversions through sanctioned banks, including Banco de Venezuela, exploiting JPMorgan Chase and Stripe/Bridge infrastructure to provide US banking rails for Venezuelan users. Following the allegations, JPMorgan froze Kontigo's accounts, Bridge began offboarding the company, and Binance blocked Kontigo-linked wallet transactions. There are significant compliance risks for stablecoin infrastructure providers. This case demonstrates how sanctioned jurisdictions can exploit legitimate US payment rails through intermediary fintech companies.

NON-USD STABLECOINS AND EQUITY/RWA PERPS

Builders should prioritize non-USD stablecoins to unlock on-chain FX liquidity and build equity and real-world-asset perpetuals, which are superior to options and futures and will become the most traded derivatives in tradfi.

GRAYSCALE ADDS 27 ASSETS TO Q1 2026 CONSIDERATION LIST

Grayscale added 27 digital assets to its Q1 2026 consideration list, with seven completely new to its sector framework.

CRYPTO YOUTUBE VIEWERSHIP HITS LOWEST SINCE JANUARY 2021

Viewership of cryptocurrency-related content on YouTube has dropped to its lowest level since January 2021, signaling continued retail disengagement despite recent price action.

ERIC ADAMS NYC TOKEN CRASHES 60% AMID LIQUIDITY CONCERNS

Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams launched NYC Token to purportedly fund social causes.

ADOBE FIREFLY GETS GPT-IMAGE 1.5 SUPPORT AND TEMPORARY UNLIMITED IMAGE GENERATION

Adobe has integrated OpenAI's GPT-Image 1.5 into Firefly. Firefly Pro and Premium users can generate unlimited images with this model until January 15. Firefly is embedded across Adobe apps. Subscribers use monthly “generative credits” to create AI images, video, audio, and vectors. Firefly offers different credit limits depending on whether subscribers are on Free, Standard, Pro, or Premium plans.

FIGMA FOR JIRA UPDATE

The Figma for Jira app now supports webhooks so that teams can get instant design status updates, such as “Ready for Dev,” directly in Jira tickets with no admin setup required. Webhook support is enabled for newly linked design files. It is being rolled out to existing links soon.

IPHONE MARKET SHARE NOW BIGGER THAN SAMSUNG, NOT JUST DUE TO IPHONE 17

Apple pulled ahead of Samsung in global smartphone market share by the end of 2025, reaching 20% with the highest year-on-year shipment growth (10%), driven by strong demand in emerging markets and the success of both the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16. Despite expected market contraction due to rising memory costs, both Apple and Samsung are well-positioned to cope thanks to strong supply-chain control and pricing power.

BREAKING OUT OF THE INDUSTRY BOX: DESIGNERS' SKILLS WORK ANYWHERE

Designers often feel trapped in a single industry because employers prioritize vertical expertise, but transferable skills like systems thinking, enterprise UX, and technical constraint balancing apply across sectors. Reframing healthcare design experience around horizontal strengths that AI tools cannot replicate enabled a transition beyond the initial industry box. To break out of industry constraints, designers should identify what makes their work unique, discuss projects with others to find cross-industry parallels, and research target sectors to craft relevant narratives.

GHOSTING TO MONEY WORRIES – REPORT OUTLINES FREELANCE CHALLENGES

A survey by Leapers shows more people are being pushed into freelancing due to layoffs, with those who had “little other choice” reporting much worse mental health than those who chose it. Falling incomes, AI anxiety, poor client behavior, loneliness, and lack of time off are driving stress, yet many freelancers remain cautiously optimistic and still see freelancing as a sustainable future.

THE DILEMMA OF AGENCY IN DESIGN

Designers who want to create social and environmental impact often have limited agency, so real change depends on winning buy-in from organisations. The key is to understand how the organisation works, align ideas with KPIs, make strong business cases, use consumer pressure, build alliances, and start with small actions that compound into bigger change.

BEAUTIFUL UI COMPONENTS FOR AI TOOL CALLS

Responsive, accessible, typed, copy-pasteable open source components. Built on Tailwind, Radix, and shadcn/ui.

AI IMAGES AND VIDEOS IN ONE PLACE

Editly is an all-in-one AI creation platform for generating images, editing photos, and creating videos.

VIBE IT. DESIGN IT

Explore freely, iterate fast. Your design, AI-powered.

TOP 10 WEB3 UX DESIGN TRENDS TO FOLLOW IN 2026

Web3 applications are shifting from technical complexity to user-centric design through 10 key trends, including wallet abstraction that eliminates seed phrases, progressive disclosure for gradual learning, transparent transaction previews, accessibility-first interfaces with dark mode, unified portfolio dashboards, and real-time data visualization. These trends address critical barriers like intimidating onboarding, information overload, and transaction anxiety. For B2B and AI SaaS platforms entering Web3, implementing these design patterns isn't optional but essential for mainstream adoption, user trust, and competitive differentiation.

YOU'RE NOT IN EXILE, YOU'RE ON THE FOREFRONT OF A CHANGE

A creative in the Midlands feels stuck working with clients who resist ideas from outside their local bubble, seeing anything “too ambitious” as being “for London” and settling for what worked years ago nearby. Designers must act as educators and salespeople. Regional creatives aren't in exile, but at the start of future change.

PELIGONI'S NEW IDENTITY IS MAKING ME DREAM OF HOLIDAYS

Peligoni, a seaside club on Zakynthos, rebranded to clarify its confusing offer and highlight what makes it special, with agency Without stripping it back to one core idea: “summer freedom.” The rebrand simplified the name, introduced a relaxed, sun-faded visual identity and real-guest photography, and revamped the digital experience with better booking tools—creating a clear, scalable brand that feels carefree rather than corporate.

MAXON RISKS 3D ARTISTS' FURY WITH NEW AI DIGITAL TWIN TOOL

Digital Twin is an AI tool that generates marketing backgrounds for 3D product models while maintaining accurate lighting and perspective.

TYPOGRAPHY EXERCISES THAT HELP STUDENTS TRAIN THEIR EYE

Typography mastery requires consistent practice through hands-on exercises rather than theory alone.

Try it free for 14 days →

WHY WE BUILT OUR OWN BACKGROUND AGENT

Inspect is a custom background coding agent developed by Ramp that autonomously writes, verifies, and debugs code with the same context and tools a human engineer would use. The agent operates in fast, sandboxed VMs with full development environments, integrates with many existing tools, and supports interfaces like Slack, web, and Chrome extensions. Inspect was adopted quickly internally, writing approximately 30% of merged pull requests.

HOW A 40-LINE FIX ELIMINATED A 400X PERFORMANCE GAP

A method in OpenJDK on Linux previously suffered from a severe 30x-400x performance gap. The slower implementation was due to standards requiring a less direct approach for user CPU time, unlike the faster `clock_gettime()` function used for total CPU time. A recent 40-line fix exploited an obscure yet stable Linux kernel detail to enable `clock_gettime()` to directly retrieve user-time-only, improving performance a lot.

REACT HAS FINALLY SOLVED ITS BIGGEST PROBLEM: THE JOYS OF USEEFFECTEVENT

React has finally introduced the `useEffectEvent` Hook to solve its biggest problem: infinite loops and stale closures caused by `useEffect` dependency arrays. The hook provides a cleaner solution than the traditional `useRef` workaround by allowing devs to access current state values within effects without triggering re-runs when those values change.

NO MANAGEMENT NEEDED: ANTI-PATTERNS IN EARLY-STAGE ENGINEERING TEAMS

For early-stage founders facing engineering management issues, the optimal solution is often to do nothing, focusing instead on building the product and engaging with users. Attempting to actively "motivate" engineers (who should be inherently motivated hires), hiring dedicated managers prematurely, and copying complex management practices from large companies like Google are the wrong things to do.

HOW THE HELL ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO HAVE A CAREER IN TECH IN 2026?

The tech industry has had half a million workers laid off since ChatGPT's release, despite billions in AI investments. Tech workers need to understand their role within organizational systems rather than just focusing on technical skills, recognizing that companies increasingly view code and specific expertise as replaceable means to an end.

DICER

Dicer is Databricks' auto-sharder, a foundational infrastructure system for building sharded services with low latency, high availability, and cost efficiency at scale. It addresses the inefficiencies of stateless models by colocating in-memory state with computation, so there are no issues like network latency and unnecessary data fetching.

SWARK

Swark is a free and open-source VS Code extension that automatically generates architecture diagrams from code using LLMs. It integrates directly with GitHub Copilot and outputs diagrams in the Mermaid.js format.

OPENCODE VS CLAUDE CODE

OpenCode and Claude Code are both AI coding assistants that let you chat with your codebase and run terminal commands. Claude Code offers a polished, integrated experience locked to Anthropic's ecosystem, while OpenCode is an open-source alternative supporting 75+ AI providers. In head-to-head testing using the same model, Claude Code was faster and more streamlined (9 minutes vs 16 minutes total), while OpenCode was more thorough.

EVERY GITHUB OBJECT HAS TWO IDS

When building a feature for Greptile, this dev encountered an issue generating clickable GitHub links because their system stored GraphQL `node IDs` (e.g., `PRRC_kw...`), while web URLs required integer database IDs. Further investigation showed that GitHub uses two ID formats: an older, string-based system for legacy objects and a newer, more complex system for modern objects, despite inconsistent application.

NPM TO IMPLEMENT STAGED PUBLISHING AFTER TURBULENT SHIFT OFF...

npm is implementing staged publishing, a new feature that will introduce a review window before packages go live. This will require MFA-verified approval from package owners to catch malicious changes before they spread. This comes after the 2025 Shai-Hulud supply chain attacks and a disruptive migration away from classic npm tokens in December that caused workflow disruptions for maintainers.

of actually deploying it there. Learn more about mirrord

NOGIC

Nogic is a Visual Studio Code extension that helps users visualize their codebase structure with interactive diagrams.

MAKING AI GREAT AT FRONTEND

Some clever AI prompting techniques can make the frontend output of AI much better, such as sharing progressive references and using plan mode.

USING PROXIES TO HIDE SECRETS FROM CLAUDE CODE

Claude Code has security challenges, as its sandboxes can expose sensitive data such as API keys through network access or environment variables, but network proxies can be used to inject the actual API keys in a safer manner.

WORK EXPANDS. TIME VANISHES. HERE'S WHY

Parkinson's and Hofstadter's Laws say that work expands to fill available time and always takes longer than expected, but this can be somewhat mitigated with timeboxing and clearer definitions of the work.

Plaid case study.