Erin B. Fitz and Kyle L. Saunders of Colorado State University present new evidence that U.S. cryptocurrency adoption follows distinct behavioral stages, separating “considering” from “owning.” Drawing on three nationally representative surveys (n=810; 1,877; 2,077), they find considerers share demographic and personality traits with owners but differ in motivation: considering is tied to mainstream political preferences and technological optimism, while ownership aligns more with financial experience and anti-establishment beliefs. Bitcoin remains the most considered and owned asset, followed by Ethereum. The authors argue this segmentation challenges the view that adoption correlates are uniform, noting, “considerers may evaluate cryptocurrency through the lens of existing institutions, [while] ownership… reflects willingness to challenge systemic norms.” They suggest that as the digital asset industry nears the early majority phase, policy and market strategies must account for divergent pathways and motivations to foster broader, sustained adoption.
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OpenAI’s release of GPT-5 last week, billed by CEO Sam Altman as akin to “a legitimate PhD-level expert,” has underwhelmed in its leap toward artificial general intelligence, according to MIT Technology Review’s James O’Donnell. While the update delivers a sleeker ChatGPT interface and reduced flattery toward users, early testers found persistent reasoning flaws and limited advances in adaptive model selection. The most striking shift is OpenAI’s push into health advice, an arena previously avoided, via tools like HealthBench and AI-assisted diagnostics, showcased in a cancer patient’s testimonial at launch. This pivot, O’Donnell notes, reflects stalled breakthroughs in core capabilities and a strategy to drive adoption through targeted applications. Yet, as incidents like a recent bromide poisoning linked to ChatGPT illustrate, liability for harm remains murky. Experts warn that moving from broad AI ambition to high-stakes domains demands clear accountability frameworks.
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Peter Todd’s recent analysis, commissioned by Wasabi, offers a detailed comparison of the leading Bitcoin coinjoin implementations, JoinMarket and Wasabi’s WabiSabi, against deanonymization threats. Todd dismisses Yuval Kogman’s claim that WabiSabi is “not fit for purpose” without coordinator trust, noting the protocol’s Chaumian e-cash structure and Tor use make passive chain analysis largely ineffective. He highlights potential vulnerabilities in Sybil attacks, address reuse after failed rounds, and communication fingerprinting, but finds these costly or mitigable, especially with Taproot adoption. JoinMarket, by contrast, suffers from an inherent taker–maker fee flaw that often exposes the taker’s inputs, making it “not recommended until redesigned.” Todd concludes Wasabi is currently the strongest practical tool for large-scale coinjoins, especially when combined with Lightning channel openings for layered privacy. While improvements are possible, he argues its equal-participant model provides a better anonymity set than an economically asymmetric design.
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Ethereum Core developer Federico Carrone was briefly detained in Izmir, Turkey, over his academic work on Tornado Cash. Carrone, founder of LambdaClass, said authorities accused him of helping others “misuse Ethereum,” citing a research paper and open-source tool, Tutela, which assesses privacy on Ethereum and Tornado Cash. “We never helped anyone engage in illegal activity, it was purely research on mixers and their properties,” Carrone wrote on X after his release. The arrest underscores how anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing enforcement operates across borders, extending beyond U.S. jurisdiction. While Carrone has left Turkey, he plans to return if necessary to “clear my name and defend ourselves.” The case highlights tensions between open-source privacy research and legal scrutiny, with potential implications for developers working in the digital asset industry’s privacy and security sectors.
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