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4 days ago

👉Issue #98 of QX Snapshots is out!



 Happy New Year Everyone ! Warmest wishes of health and prosperity!



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, and more.

Hope it brings you value :)






[Blockchain] FalconX Acquires Arbelos; Frax Finance Debuts BlackRock-Backed Stablecoin; Jordan Unveils Blockchain Policy for Digital Transformation. FalconX, a digital asset prime broker, has acquired derivatives startup Arbelos Markets, enhancing its position in the crypto derivatives market. Arbelos, launched in 2023, is a leading derivatives trading firm and top liquidity provider in options blocks. The acquisition strengthens FalconX's derivatives capabilities and comes amid growing institutional market activity driven by ETF developments and regulatory progress. FalconX aims to leverage Arbelos's systematic trading expertise to meet increasing demand for complex trading strategies and bespoke products. Meanwhile, Frax Finance launched frxUSD, a new stablecoin backed by BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) and tokenized by Securitize. The stablecoin, a rebrand of FRAX, offers direct fiat redemption and enhanced compliance with US financial systems. BUIDL, which invests in cash, US Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements, serves as the custodian asset for minting and redeeming frxUSD. Also, Jordan's Council of Ministers has approved a Blockchain Technology Policy for 2025 to modernize government operations and enhance public trust. The initiative aims to improve operational efficiency, data security, and transparency in public administration while supporting blockchain startups and skill development. This policy, part of Jordan's digital transformation initiative, follows a regional trend in the Middle East.


[AI] DeepSeek Unveils Open-Source AI Model, AgiBot Releases Game-Changing Robotics Dataset, and New AI Jailbreak Technique Raises Security Alarms. DeepSeek has released DeepSeek-V3, a 671-billion-parameter open-source AI model that activates 37 billion parameters per token. Using Multi-head Latent Attention and DeepSeekMoE architectures, the model was trained on 14.8 trillion tokens at a cost of $5.57 million. It outperforms other open-source models and rivals closed-source competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic's offerings. Key innovations include auxiliary loss-free load balancing and multi-token prediction, enabling it to generate 60 tokens per second. Meanwhile, Chinese robotics firm AgiBot has released "AgiBot World," a massive AI training dataset containing over 1 million training sets from 100 robots. The dataset, designed to train humanoid robots in tasks like folding clothes and cleaning, covers various environments including homes (40%), restaurants (20%), industrial settings (20%), offices (10%), and supermarkets (10%). Founded in 2023, AgiBot competes with Tesla and Boston Dynamics in developing human-like robots. The open-source dataset, available on Hugging Face and GitHub, claims to have 10 times more navigational data than Google's Open X-Embodiment and covers 100 times more scenarios. Also, researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 revealed "Bad Likert Judge," a new AI jailbreak technique that uses an LLM to score response harmfulness on the Likert scale, then generates examples for each score level. Testing across six major LLMs showed over 60% higher attack success rates compared to plain prompts. Content filtering reduced success rates by 89.2%. This follows recent findings that ChatGPT's search tool can be manipulated using hidden text to generate misleading summaries. 


[Quantum Technology] UK Develops GPS-Independent Quantum Atomic Clock, China Advances Quantum Remote Sensing, and MicroAlgo Unveils Quantum FULL Adder Breakthrough. The UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory has developed a quantum atomic clock for military applications, offering exceptional accuracy (losing less than one second over billions of years) and reducing reliance on vulnerable GPS systems. The £28 million project aims to enhance military operations through improved navigation, secure communications, and weapons accuracy. Plans include miniaturizing the technology for vehicles and aircraft within five years, with support from industry and academic partners like Infleqtion UK and Imperial College London. Meanwhile, Chinese researchers demonstrated a quantum remote sensing system that can securely measure data over 50 kilometers using single-qubit states instead of entanglement. The system achieved under 6% error rate and could be used for environmental monitoring, disaster response, and secure communications. This simplified approach makes quantum sensing more practical by avoiding the technical challenges of maintaining quantum entanglement. The team plans to expand the technology for multi-node quantum networks and satellite-based communication. Also, MicroAlgo Inc. announced development of a quantum algorithm for FULL adder operations using CPU registers in quantum gate computers. The technology, based on the Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm, enables quantum computers to perform complex arithmetic tasks more efficiently by leveraging qubit properties. The innovation improves computation speed and accuracy in quantum computers while providing insights for future quantum computer design. However, challenges remain in hardware manufacturing, quantum algorithm development, and commercialization.


[General technology] US Treasury Hit by Cyber Breach, Chrome Extensions Compromised in Major Attack, and China Sets 100Gbps Satellite Laser Communication Record.  Hackers reportedly breached computers of senior US Treasury Department officials, accessing unclassified materials on approximately 100 government computers. The compromise included policy drafts, travel documents, and internal communications, but did not affect email or classified systems. The hackers gained access to both laptops and desktops, though specific officials impacted remain undisclosed. The Treasury Department, crucial for managing national debt and economic policy, is still assessing the extent of data taken. Meanwhile, a widespread attack campaign has compromised at least 35 Chrome extensions, affecting over 2.6 million users. Attackers used phishing emails impersonating Google Chrome Web Store support to gain access to extension publishers' accounts and inject malicious code for stealing cookies and access tokens. The campaign, first detected by Cyberhaven on December 24, has targeted various extensions including AI assistants, VPNs, and productivity tools. Also, China's Chang Guang Satellite Technology achieved a groundbreaking 100Gbps laser communication speed between their Jilin-1 satellite and a ground station, setting a record 10 times faster than their previous achievement. The company, which operates 117 satellites in the world's largest commercial remote sensing constellation, plans to implement this technology across their entire network, aiming for 300 satellites by 2027. According to company officials, this puts them ahead of SpaceX's Starlink in deploying satellite-to-ground laser communications, potentially advancing 6G technology development.




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