Dan Goodin reports that Signal has completed a major post-quantum upgrade to its encryption protocol, marking one of the most advanced security engineering feats in recent years. The update, designed by Signal Messenger LLC, introduces a “triple ratchet” system combining classical elliptic-curve and quantum-resistant lattice cryptography to protect messages from future quantum computer attacks. Using ML-KEM-768, a standardized version of the CRYSTALS-Kyber algorithm, the new Sparse Post-Quantum Ratchet (SPQR) ensures forward secrecy and post-compromise security even under quantum threat. Researchers from PQShield, AIST, and NYU helped design the erasure-code-based system that maintains reliability across asynchronous networks. “This appears to be a solid, thoughtful improvement,” said cryptographer Brian LaMacchia, praising Signal’s optimization for minimal network impact. The design, Goodin notes, effectively “sneaks an elephant through a cat door,” a metaphor for embedding quantum-safe encryption into an already intricate architecture.
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Charles Chong argues in an op-ed that U.S. firms have a rare opportunity to challenge Asia’s decade-long dominance in Bitcoin mining hardware. Asian manufacturers like Bitmain, MicroBT, and Canaan still produce 99% of global ASIC rigs, but as efficiency gains plateau at the 3nm chip frontier, miners increasingly value longevity, repairability, and software openness over raw speed. Block’s new Proto Rig and Proto Fleet products, built on modular, open-source principles, could mark a turning point if successful. “Competition strengthens not just miners’ balance sheets but the health of the ecosystem itself,” Chong writes, suggesting a U.S. entry could diversify ASIC expertise and improve network resilience. He envisions modular, hot-swappable designs and firmware that allows dynamic energy tuning: key as electricity, not hardware, drives mining costs. Even limited U.S. competition, he concludes, could shift Bitcoin mining from fragility to long-term sustainability.
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Writing in Uncharted Territories, Tomas Pueyo offers a striking new geographic theory for global inequality: warm countries are poorer not simply because of heat, disease, or colonial legacies, but because many tropical societies evolved in mountainous terrain. Populations in the equatorial highlands sought cooler, less humid climates to avoid illness and preserve productivity, but those same mountains imposed steep transportation costs, fragmented trade, and encouraged political “Balkanization.” The result, he argues, is a structural poverty distinct from lowland regions’ disease-driven challenges. “Humans evolved in the African highlands,” Pueyo writes, suggesting that our biology remains tuned to moderate temperatures and low humidity. His framework reframes development policy: in hot lowlands, invest in air conditioning and disease control; in highlands, focus on infrastructure to connect isolated economies. The insight links geography, adaptation, and technology in explaining persistent global income gaps.
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The Rage’s L0la L33tz reports that a leaked Senate Democrats’ proposal would give the U.S. Treasury sweeping authority over non-custodial digital asset services, igniting alarm across the industry. The draft framework would allow Treasury to classify any decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, front-end, or developer as a “digital asset intermediary,” subjecting them to Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and sanctions law obligations, including Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. It would also create a “Restricted List” of banned software linked to illicit finance. Critics warn the measure could amount to a de facto ban on open-source innovation. “This proposal is less a regulatory framework and more an unprecedented, unconstitutional government takeover of an entire industry,” wrote Variant Fund’s Jake Chervinsky. The Bitcoin Policy Institute argued it would “treat software contributors or website operators as if they were custodians.” While advocates urge restraint, CoinCenter’s Peter Valkenburgh notes the leak remains a draft—not yet a final bill.
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