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Nov 1

👉Issue #90 of QX Snapshots is out!




Welcome to QX Snapshots - a weekly recap of the key news on emerging technologies. In this newsletter, you will get a "digest" of the latest info on Enterprise Blockchain, AI, Quantum Technology. Hope it brings you value :)


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Every Friday we share key snapshot news on AI, Quantum Technologies, Metaverse, and Enterprise Blockchain/DLT.


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[Blockchain] Banco Santander, Lloyds, and UBS Make Margin Payments on Fnality’s DLT System, OCBC Completes Intraday Lending via Onyx, BBVA Launches Tokenized Fund Pilot, and Asia Digital Asset Exchange Alliance Launched.  Banco Santander, Lloyds Banking Group, and UBS have completed the first uncleared bilateral margin payments using the Sterling Fnality Payment System (£FnPS), a regulated DLT-based payment system. This milestone demonstrates the system's capability to handle margin payments for inter-bank derivative exposures. The pilot, supported by Adhara's MarginBloc technology, marks a significant step toward enabling banks to achieve balance sheet benefits and reduce costs and risks. Fnality plans to expand to the US in 2025, working toward a vision of interconnected payment systems operating 24/7/365 for global liquidity management. Meanwhile, OCBC has become Singapore's first bank to offer intraday institutional lending through J.P. Morgan's Onyx Digital Assets platform. The bank completed its first reverse repo transaction on October 11, 2024, using blockchain technology to enable near-instantaneous exchange of cash and tokenized securities, compared to traditional one-day settlement periods. OCBC also executed its first intraday repo as a borrower. Since 2020, J.P. Morgan's digital financing platform has processed over 1,200 intraday repos totaling more than $1.5 trillion, with ten clients across Asia, North America, and Europe participating. Also, BBVA Asset Management has launched a pilot tokenized investment fund through CNMV's regulatory sandbox. The BBVA Token Renta Fija Corto Plazo fund's units will be registered on Allfunds Blockchain network, with orders processed through smart contracts. Currently limited to employees, the short-term fixed-income fund maintains traditional investment processes while using blockchain for order management. And, the Asia Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (ADEA) launched at Blockchain Week in Busan, bringing together six major regulated digital exchanges from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. The alliance aims to strengthen the digital asset ecosystem through market expansion, regulatory coordination, and knowledge sharing. The event also marked the launch of Busan Digital Asset Exchange (BDAN), which will focus on tokenizing real assets like precious metals and carbon credits.



[AI] OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Real-Time Search with Source Links, Anthropic Adds Dictation to Claude App, Recraft AI Reveals Top Image Model Red_Panda. OpenAI has launched ChatGPT search, enabling users to get real-time answers with source links directly through the ChatGPT interface. The feature, powered by a fine-tuned GPT-4o model, combines natural language interaction with current information like news, sports scores, and stock quotes. OpenAI has partnered with major news publishers including Associated Press, Axel Springer, and Le Monde to ensure quality content. Initially available to ChatGPT Plus and Team users, with Enterprise and Edu users getting access in weeks, the feature will roll out to free users in coming months. Meanwhile, Anthropic has added dictation functionality to Claude's mobile apps for iOS and Android, allowing users to speak their prompts instead of typing. Available for free, Pro, and Team plans, the feature supports 12 languages including English, French, German, and Japanese. Users can access dictation via a microphone icon in the chat input field and change language settings in the app. Anthropic emphasizes privacy, stating that audio recordings are deleted after conversion to text and not used for model training. Also, Recraft AI has revealed itself as the creator of Red_Panda, the mysterious text-to-image model that recently topped the Artificial Analysis Image Arena leaderboard. Now known as Recraft V3, the model achieved a 72% win rate and 1172 ELO score, outperforming competitors like FLUX1.1 and Midjourney. The model offers unique capabilities, including generation of any image size and long text integration. Available through Recraft's website and mobile apps, subscriptions range from free to $48 monthly. It is also available in Replicate. And, MIT researchers have developed Heterogeneous Pretrained Transformers (HPT), a breakthrough method for robot training that unifies diverse data types into a shared language for AI processing. The system combines 52 datasets containing over 200,000 robot trajectories and outperforms traditional training methods by 20% in both simulated and real-world scenarios.



[Quantum Technology] QuTech Links Quantum Processors Over 25km for Quantum Internet Milestone, Rigetti & Riverlane Achieve Real-Time Error Correction on 84-Qubit System, and UK’s Quantum £1B Investment  QuTech researchers have successfully connected quantum processors between Delft and The Hague using 25 kilometers of existing optical fiber infrastructure, marking a significant step toward a quantum internet. The team overcame major challenges including photon loss and node stability through innovative protocols and precise stabilization techniques. The system converts qubit-native photons to telecom L-band frequencies and uses phase-stabilized architecture. This achievement, supported by European entities and various technology partners, demonstrates a scalable platform for metropolitan-scale quantum networks that could enable secure data sharing and distributed quantum computing. Meanwhile, Rigetti and Riverlane have successfully demonstrated real-time quantum error correction on an 84-qubit Ankaa™-2 system. The experiment achieved decoding speeds faster than one microsecond, preventing computational backlogs and enabling efficient error correction. Rigetti's superconducting qubits operate at 60-80 nanoseconds gate speeds, significantly faster than ion trap systems. This breakthrough, part of an ongoing partnership that includes collaboration at the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre, marks a significant step toward fault-tolerant quantum computing. Also, the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP) celebrates its 10th anniversary, having invested £1 billion in public funding. The UK has emerged as one of the world's top two countries for quantum company creation and investment attraction, with UKRI-funded quantum companies raising nearly £700M in private investment. The program has yielded practical applications including quantum-secured networks, brain scanners, and greenhouse gas detection cameras. The initiative continues to expand with five new Quantum Research Hubs supported by an additional £160M investment.



[General technology] Microsoft Exposes Storm-0940’s Quad7 Botnet Targeting SOHO Devices, Xiū gǒu Phishing Kit Creates Thousands of Fake Sites, and LayerX Report Highlights Corporate Identity Security Risks.  Microsoft has identified a threat actor, Storm-0940, using the Quad7 botnet (CovertNetwork-1658) for password spray attacks against Microsoft customers. The botnet exploits vulnerabilities in SOHO routers and VPN devices from various manufacturers, compromising approximately 8,000 devices. The operation targets organizations in North America and Europe, including government entities and think tanks. Microsoft notes the botnet's infrastructure is declining following public disclosure, suggesting the actors may be developing new evasion tactics. Meanwhile, a new phishing kit called Xiū gǒu has been used to create over 2,000 fake websites targeting users in Australia, Japan, Spain, the UK, and US since September 2024. The kit uses Golang and Vue.js, exploits Cloudflare's features to avoid detection, and exfiltrates data via Telegram. The attacks are delivered through RCS messages rather than SMS, typically involving fake parking penalties or package delivery notifications. Google is implementing new protections against such scams, including enhanced detection and security warnings for suspicious messages. Also, LayerX has released its Enterprise Identity Threat Report 2024 revealing key vulnerabilities in corporate identity security. The study found that 2% of users account for most identity-related risks, with exposed passwords appearing in an average of 9.5 breaches. About 67.5% of corporate logins bypass SSO protection, and 42.5% use personal accounts. Additionally, 54% of corporate passwords are medium-strength or weaker, while 66.6% of browser extensions have high-risk permissions. Attackers increasingly exploit legitimate hosting services, with 49.6% of malicious pages bypassing traditional security tools through sophisticated techniques.









By: Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA)


The Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA) has released a paper examining the policy and legal implications of implementing unconditional inclusion lists on Ethereum, focusing on their impact on network neutrality. Authored by experts from Predicate and Arktouros, the paper explores how inclusion lists would be structured and affect base layer actors. It emphasizes the need to define credible neutrality while considering regulatory challenges, as Ethereum participants operate in regulated markets. POSA calls for stakeholder review to maintain censorship resistance while navigating legal requirements.



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