top of page
Urban Clouds
Nov 8

👉Issue #91 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 :)


If you are interested in emerging technologies and you like what you read, consider subscribing to our newsletter on LinkedIn!


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


Join our +500 trusted readers at U.S Bank, Eurasian Development Bank, EY, Morgan Stanley, BNY Mellon, Microsoft, Verizon, Facebook, ServiceNow, ConsenSys, Polygon Labs, Duke University, Sky, Informa, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Santander, and others.





[Blockchain] NTT Digital Partners with Amazon and StraitsX for Tokenized Payments, Nium Joins Partior for Real-Time Multi-Currency Settlements, Standard Chartered & Ant Advance Blockchain Liquidity Transfers, and MAS Expands GL1 Blockchain Initiative.  NTT Digital is partnering with Amazon and StraitsX to demonstrate tokenized accounts payable using their "scramberry WALLET SUITE" at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2024. The demonstration allows SMEs to receive payable tokens and trade them for XSGD stablecoin, potentially enabling faster payment processing compared to traditional 7-90 day terms. The wallet service, available since September 2024, now supports overseas users and browser applications. NTT Digital plans to expand into digital identity services by early 2025, allowing users to manage cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, tickets, and digital identities within their wallet. Meanwhile, Nium and Partior announced a strategic partnership, making Nium the first fintech PSP on Partior's blockchain network. The collaboration enables financial institutions to access real-time payouts, clearing, and settlement across 100+ markets without additional API integration. Through Partior's blockchain platform, Nium expands its network connectivity to offer instant multi-currency payments and PvP settlements, addressing traditional inefficiencies in global payments such as delays and high costs. The partnership advances Nium's goal of becoming the most connected global payments network. Also, Standard Chartered and Ant International have successfully completed SGD liquidity transfers between entities using Ant's blockchain-based Whale platform. This follows their earlier HKD test settlement and represents advancement in 24/7 treasury management. The platform uses blockchain technology to improve fund movement efficiency and transparency. For global companies like Ant International, this enables instant liquidity management across borders. Standard Chartered sees this as part of their commitment to providing real-time, transparent liquidity solutions for clients. And, MAS announced HSBC and Euroclear as new participants in the GL1 public permissioned blockchain initiative, joining five existing banks (BNY, Citi, J.P. Morgan, MUFG, and Societe Generale-FORGE). The expanded scope includes developing cross-border payments, collateral management, and sustainable business models.



[AI] Google's AI Agent Finds Zero-Day in SQLite, Anthropic & Palantir Partner with AWS for U.S. Intelligence/Defense, Microsoft Unveils Magentic-One Multi-Agent System, and Google Jarvis AI for Chrome Automation. Google's Project Zero and DeepMind announced that their AI agent, Big Sleep, discovered a zero-day vulnerability in SQLite, marking the first publicly known instance of AI finding such a security flaw in real-world software. The vulnerability was promptly fixed by SQLite's team before release. While currently experimental and comparable to target-specific fuzzing, the team believes AI-powered vulnerability detection could significantly advantage defenders in the future. However, the announcement comes amid growing concerns about AI's security implications, particularly regarding deepfakes, with predictions suggesting 50,000 identity fraud attempts. Meanwhile, Anthropic and Palantir have partnered with AWS to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access to Claude 3 and 3.5 AI models via Palantir's AI Platform. The integration, hosted on AWS's IL6-accredited environment, enables secure processing of complex data and enhanced decision-making for government operations. Palantir becomes the first to bring Claude models to classified environments, building on successful commercial applications like automating insurance underwriting. The partnership leverages AWS's SageMaker service and security protocols to deliver responsible AI solutions for government use. Also, Microsoft has unveiled Magentic-One, an open-source multi-agent AI system designed to solve complex web and file-based tasks. The system features an Orchestrator agent that coordinates four specialized agents: WebSurfer, FileSurfer, Coder, and ComputerTerminal. Built on Microsoft's AutoGen framework, Magentic-One achieves competitive performance on major benchmarks and can utilize different LLM models, though GPT-4o is recommended for the Orchestrator. While demonstrating strong capabilities, Microsoft acknowledges potential risks and emphasizes responsible AI practices. And, Google accidentally leaked Jarvis AI, an upcoming Chrome extension designed to automate web browsing tasks, through a brief appearance on the Chrome extension store. The AI agent, expected to officially launch in December, will help users with online shopping and travel bookings. The prototype was quickly removed and remained unusable due to permission requirements.



[Quantum Technology] D-Wave Unveils Advantage2 Quantum Processor, IonQ Acquires Qubitekk, and Nu Quantum Partners with CERN for Data-Center Scale Quantum Networks. D-Wave has completed benchmarking its new 4,400+ qubit Advantage2 quantum processor, demonstrating significant performance improvements over its predecessor. The system shows a 25,000-fold speed increase for materials science problems and delivers five times better solutions for high-precision applications. Key improvements include doubled qubit coherence time, 40% increased energy scale, and enhanced connectivity from 15 to 20-way. The processor outperforms the current Advantage system in 99% of satisfiability problem tests, marking a significant advancement in quantum computing capabilities. Meanwhile, IonQ has announced the acquisition of Qubitekk, a quantum networking company, to expand its capabilities in quantum networking technology. The deal adds 118 patents in quantum networking hardware and security, and brings key Qubitekk leadership to IonQ's team. This follows IonQ's recent achievements, including a $54.5m US Air Force Research Lab contract and demonstration of remote ion-ion entanglement. The acquisition, expected to close within six months, aims to contribute to near-term revenue and establish IonQ as a leader in both quantum networking and computing. Also, Nu Quantum has partnered with CERN's White Rabbit (WR) technology to develop data-center scale quantum computing networks, becoming the first quantum industrial partner in the WR Collaboration. The company will preview their Quantum Networking Unit (QNU) at the National Quantum Technology Showcase in London, with full system delivery expected in March 2025. The QNU utilizes WR's sub-nanosecond timing precision for quantum network synchronization and orchestration. This technology marks a significant step toward enabling distributed quantum computing by connecting multiple quantum nodes in practical data-center environments.



[General technology] MirrorFace Targets EU Diplomatic Group, 'Fabrice' Python Package Steals AWS Credentials, and NVIDIA Unveils New Tools for Robotics Development. The hacking group MirrorFace has targeted an EU diplomatic organization for the first time, using the 2025 Osaka World Expo as bait in a spear-phishing campaign. The attack deployed ANEL and NOOPDOOR backdoors through a malicious Windows shortcut file. This development coincides with increased cyber activity, including Volt Typhoon's breach of Singtel and Salt Typhoon's targeting of U.S. telecom providers, reportedly compromising cellphone lines of senior U.S. officials. ESET reports MirrorFace conducts fewer than 10 highly targeted attacks annually for espionage purposes. Meanwhile, a malicious Python package named "fabrice," typosquatting the popular "fabric" library, has accumulated over 37,100 downloads while secretly stealing AWS credentials. The package, still available on PyPI, executes different malicious payloads on Linux and Windows systems, including downloading shell scripts and creating backdoors. Using Boto3 AWS SDK, it collects AWS access and secret keys, potentially compromising cloud resources. The package demonstrates sophisticated typosquatting by mimicking a trusted library that has over 202 million legitimate downloads. In other news, NVIDIA announced new AI and simulation tools for robot development at CoRL 2024, including the public release of Isaac Lab framework and six new workflows for Project GR00T, aimed at humanoid robot development. The company introduced the Cosmos tokenizer, which processes visual data 12x faster than existing solutions, and NeMo Curator for improved video processing. The tools are being adopted by major robotics companies like 1X, Boston Dynamics, and Agility Robotics. NVIDIA also presented 23 research papers and announced a collaboration with Hugging Face to accelerate open-source robotics research. 





What else is new at QualitaX?

bottom of page