cryptography

According to the Korea Economic Daily, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has announced that it will introduce post-quantum cryptography (PQC) technology to guard against the risk of future quantum computers potentially breaking existing encryption systems.Bithumb plans to comprehensively apply PQC technology from virtual asset wallet management to identity authentication systems, focusing on protecting customer private keys, and will collaborate with security technology company ATON to encrypt various stages of data processing, including input, authentication, transmission, and storage. Additionally, Bithumb will strengthen its real-time monitoring system to detect new types of hacker attacks and abnormal trading patterns that utilize quantum computers.

The Ethereum Foundation has announced the list of grants and ecosystem support projects for the first quarter of 2026, focusing on cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), protocol security, and core infrastructure development, continuously strengthening the Ethereum underlying technology stack and long-term scalability.This quarter's funding covers several key areas. At the protocol and client level, projects include optimizations for the Geth and Erigon clients, upgrades to the Lighthouse client, and the development of network monitoring tools after the Pectra upgrade, with a focus on improving network performance and attack resistance. Additionally, projects such as HSM key management, the validator security tool Vero, and the DISC-NG node discovery mechanism have also received support to enhance node-level reliability and institutional compliance capabilities.In the areas of cryptography and ZK, the foundation continues to invest in projects such as the analysis of the Poseidon hash function, research on Gröbner basis attacks, exploration of quantum-resistant and homomorphic mixed encryption, and formal verification of RISC-V zkVM, further strengthening the security boundaries of zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic infrastructure.In terms of the developer ecosystem, the BuidlGuidl education system upgrade, ERC standard community building, WalletConnect clear signature library, and Open Creator Rails toolchain are continuously advancing to lower development barriers and enhance user interaction security. Meanwhile, L2BEAT continues to provide transparency analysis for Layer 2, strengthening the data infrastructure for scaling ecosystems.Furthermore, the foundation supports privacy technologies (such as Tor integration and Privacy Pool SDK), decentralized identity (did:ethr standard upgrade), DAO governance research, and public goods experimental projects, covering a complete ecological structure from the protocol layer to the application layer. Overall, this round of funding continues Ethereum's long-term investment in the three core directions of "cryptography + ZK + protocol engineering," emphasizing the support for future multi-layer scaling and institutional-level application implementation through infrastructure and standardization development.

According to Decrypt, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, stated during a hearing before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. government is currently running a Bitcoin node for cybersecurity-related testing, but is not engaged in mining.Paparo indicated that the U.S. military's interest in Bitcoin primarily focuses on its value as a computer science tool, including cryptography, blockchain, and reusable proof-of-work mechanisms, with the aim of using the Bitcoin protocol to strengthen cybersecurity and enhance military capabilities, which is still in the experimental stage. He also mentioned that maintaining the global dominance of the U.S. dollar aligns with U.S. military interests and gave a positive evaluation of the stablecoin legalization bill, the GENIUS Act, signed by Trump last summer, believing that the bill helps to solidify the global position of the dollar.

According to the official blog, Circle's institutional-grade blockchain Arc has released a phased upgrade roadmap for post-quantum cryptography (PQ), planning to introduce post-quantum signature schemes at the launch of the mainnet, gradually covering full-stack layers such as private state protection, infrastructure hardening, and validator authentication.The Arc mainnet will support post-quantum signatures from the outset, using an opt-in mechanism that does not require mandatory migration or a full network reset, allowing users to independently create wallets with long-term security. The recent goal is to extend quantum resistance to the private virtual machine (VM) layer, protecting private balances, private transactions, and private payees, with public keys additionally encapsulated in a symmetric encryption layer under privacy mode.The mid-term plan is to advance the upgrade of the infrastructure layer, aligning with industry standards such as TLS 1.3, covering access control, cloud environments, and hardware security modules (HSM). The long-term goal is to complete the hardening of validator signatures. Given that Arc's block finalization time is less than 1 second, the current assessment considers the risk of quantum attacks in this phase to be relatively limited, and it will be steadily advanced after the post-quantum consensus toolchain matures.Circle also warns that attackers may adopt a "collect now, decrypt later" strategy, and institutions should plan their cryptographic migration paths as early as possible.

According to Cointelegraph, Google has set 2029 as the deadline for its post-quantum cryptography migration, warning that the threat of quantum computing may arrive sooner than expected.Google stated that the rapid advancements in quantum computing hardware and quantum error correction, along with updates to the timeline for quantum computers to break current encryption standards, have heightened the urgency for action. This is the first time Google has set a timeline for the deployment of post-quantum capabilities in its products, ahead of some industry predictions for "Q-Day." Google is developing its quantum chip Willow, which has 105 qubits and is one of the most powerful quantum processors currently available.

According to CoinDesk, the quantum-resistant cryptography specialist BTQ Technologies (BTQ) recently announced a solution to protect the Bitcoin blockchain, called "Bitcoin Quantum," an open-source fork testnet that is said to be capable of addressing quantum challenges.Chris Tam, head of partnerships at BTQ, stated that Bitcoin Quantum is a publicly operable network where miners, developers, researchers, and users can stress-test against quantum transactions and reveal the trade-offs in actual operation before discussions about mainnet upgrades become urgent.The system includes a block explorer and mining pool, providing instant accessibility. Tam explained that in August 2024, the quantum-resistant algorithm known as "Dilithium" (officially named the Module-Lattice-based Digital Signature Algorithm ML-DSA) will be standardized in the United States, and this algorithm is the technology adopted by the Bitcoin Quantum network. This algorithm has not yet been widely applied in rapidly innovating fields like cryptocurrency, primarily due to its high operational costs.Compared to the digital signatures used every time information is sent to the blockchain or even when sending a WhatsApp message, the data size of quantum-resistant algorithms increases by at least 200 times. Therefore, while there are methods to address quantum risks, they also pose problems, mainly reflected in performance and cost overhead during large-scale deployment.

FHE cryptography company Zama tweeted that its OG NFT claiming portal will open today.

According to CriptoNoticias, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is deepening its collaboration with educational institutions in Argentina. The University of Buenos Aires (UBA) established a Research Center for Cryptography and Distributed Systems in early November, which is closely linked to the Ethereum Foundation ecosystem.The Argentine software development company Lambda Class donated $1 million to the center, of which $250,000 has been allocated for undergraduate, master's, and doctoral scholarships. The center aims to integrate interdisciplinary research on blockchain and distributed systems, covering areas such as mathematics, computer science, and fintech.Additionally, Tomasz Stańczak, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, confirmed that the foundation is advancing an educational project involving several universities in Argentina. Starting in 2026, students at the Estación Buenos Aires school in Buenos Aires will receive blockchain technology certificates certified by the Ethereum Foundation, with courses including the smart contract development language Solidity.

According to Solid Intel's monitoring, Vitalik Buterin warned at Devconnect that quantum computing could break elliptic curve cryptography before the 2028 U.S. presidential election, and urged ETH to transition to quantum-resistant cryptography within the next four years.

FHE cryptography company Zama announced the strategic acquisition of KKRT Labs, a move that strengthens Zama's technical depth in blockchain scalability and efficiency (ZK) aggregation, while accelerating its ability to provide high-performance confidentiality to all public blockchains.KKRT Labs is a pioneering R&D company focused on using zero-knowledge proofs to scale blockchain.

ChainCatcher news, the SEC has officially designated the Naoris Protocol as a reference model for the financial industry's transition to post-quantum cryptography in the "Post-Quantum Financial Infrastructure Framework" (PQFIF). This strategic document submitted to the U.S. Crypto Assets Working Group places the Naoris Protocol at the core of U.S. cybersecurity regulatory priorities.This strategic document is released against the backdrop of the rise of quantum computers, which pose an existential threat to the protection of digital assets: by 2034, the probability of quantum computers related to cryptography breaking the RSA-2048 algorithm is between 17% and 34%, threatening trillions of dollars in digital assets. The "Post-Quantum Financial Infrastructure Framework" references Naoris three times. The Naoris Protocol stands out with its "Sub-Zero Layer" architecture, which allows the integration of post-quantum cryptography into existing EVM blockchains without the need for hard forks or interruptions. Its approach employs NIST-approved algorithms (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA) to secure blockchain infrastructure.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, cryptographic company Zama, focused on fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technology, has completed a $57 million Series B funding round, co-led by Blockchange Ventures and Pantera Capital.This round of financing brings Zama's total funding to over $150 million, with a valuation exceeding $1 billion, making it the first "unicorn" in the field of fully homomorphic encryption. Fully homomorphic encryption technology allows for privacy to be maintained during data usage, which is particularly important for sensitive applications in blockchain and artificial intelligence.The Zama protocol allows developers to build encrypted decentralized applications (dapps) without deep expertise in cryptography. The company's public testnet is now open for use, and the funding will be used for the mainnet launch, ecosystem adoption expansion, and research work. Use cases include confidential stablecoin issuance, asset tokenization, private identity verification, and network nation governance.Zama's Series A funding was led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with a total amount of $73 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, crypto advocacy groups such as the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, DeFi Education Fund, and the Bitcoin Policy Institute are calling for the dismissal of the case against the Bitcoin mixing service Samourai.These groups believe that Samourai Wallet merely helps people conduct financial transactions online without violating U.S. law. Nevertheless, a federal judge this week refused to accept these groups' amicus briefs. Previously, the U.S. government shut down Samourai Wallet and arrested its developers, accusing the application of being an "unlicensed money transmitting business" used by criminals.