Hey folks! In this issue, we're covering the historical failure of PKI systems, Vitalik Buterin's "communism," Russian cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure in multiple countries, and past-life memories, among other things.
News
- Vitalik's "Communism" Sparks Backlash. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted, "make communism great again," earning immediate backlash from prominent crypto figures. Coinbase's Viktor Bunin condemned communism, Ameen Soleimani declared "I quit," and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakavenko said communism is as bad as fascism. The background for Buterin's tweet is that the Ethereum Foundation recently hired someone from Gitcoin, which is perceived by some to have a more left-wing orientation.
- Russian hacking group allegedly targets critical infrastructure in the US, UK, and Canada. Microsoft reports that a Russian state-backed group called "Seashell Blizzard" is conducting one of the most extensive cyber espionage campaigns ever seen, infiltrating critical infrastructure across multiple continents through vulnerabilities in IT management software.
Since early 2024, they've exploited vulnerabilities in widely-used IT tools like ConnectWise ScreenConnect and Fortinet FortiClient EMS. - Trump: Federal Government Should "Take Over" Local Politics in DC. In 2023, homicides in DC rose to the highest level in more than 10 years, with 273 cases.
- Majorana 1. Microsoft unveiled the world's first quantum processor using topological qubits. Validated in Nature and demonstrated at the Station Q conference, the processor's core innovation is the "topoconductor"—a new state of matter that enables quantum bits resistant to local disturbances.
- Spotify is Going After AI Audiobooks. The deluge will continue. Spotify is partnering with ElevenLabs to introduce AI-narrated audiobooks.
- Patel Poised for FBI Top Job. According to Politico, Kash Patel nears Senate confirmation to run the FBI, with a cloture vote passing.
Research
- A survey of PKI systems over 53 years. Despite being discovered in 1970, PKI still lacks successful mass deployment due to persistent technical, economic, legal and social challenges. This study examines PKI's evolution across national digital ID implementations, finding consistent problems: Complex certificate management; high costs; error-prone key generation; liability concerns; non-repudiation problems; and challenging cross-certification between authorities. Estonia's system uses custom blockchain but relies on a single commercial entity. India's Aadhaar raises major privacy concerns. Germany's eID sees low usage despite high adoption. The UAE's mandatory adoption faces scalability issues. The European Commission is now attempting the largest PKI deployment in history (€165B in funding). However, this survey should make you skeptical, because no country has yet achieved a particularly successful mass deployment of PKI-based digital identity.
- Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Lee Metric Syndrome Decoding. A new protocol has been developed for the Lee metric variant of the syndrome decoding problem. This work advances post-quantum cryptography by providing zero-knowledge capabilities for Lee metric codes, which are being explored as alternatives to current systems vulnerable to quantum attacks.
- Non-Malleable Zero-Knowledge. How to minimize rounds in zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, especially for non-malleable ZK (NMZK), without sacrificing security? Prior work showed four or more rounds, so is a six-round or even three-round NMZK feasible? Researchers constructed a six-round public-coin NMZK argument of knowledge, and a three-round private-coin NMZK argument from keyless multi-collision-resistant hash assumptions.
Perspectives
- From the group chat: Past-Life Memories. Research over 50 years has observed a strange phenomenon: young children, typically ages 2-6, who spontaneously recall details from experiences they seem never to have had. The University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies has collected thousands of such cases. These children often provide specific, verifiable details about deceased individuals, sometimes including knowledge of physical traits and birthmarks corresponding to fatal wounds. Skeptics suggest psychological processes like confabulation or cryptomnesia. But even Carl Sagan considered these cases "worthy of serious study."
- "In a distributed system setting, malice and incompetence are indistinguishable. Always assume malice." @ZorpZK.
- "All the smart people will leave Ethereum, and just like bitcoiners in the previous era, the remnants won't have a clue why it happened... The Ethereum Foundation is dedicating 166 million dollars from their treasury to public trading to show people they "care about the ecosystem." levels of hilarity and desperation I'd failed to imagine. @chaserxy.
That’s all for this week. Hit reply if you have any comments, feedback, or want to share what you’re working on!
