# Top stories on Kiwi News, week 44 2023 Mon 30 October to Sun 5 November 2023 Page: https://news.kiwistand.com/weekly/2023-W44 The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 30 October to Sun 5 November 2023, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 0 comments in total. Summaries are AI summaries of the linked article. ## 1. Natural Composability in Autonomous Worlds - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Natural-Composability-in-Autonomous-Worlds?index=0x654107fdfd310601b2be06ca3f02d4ce48eb6f183b09b72552fc6858aaccad1c97654c32 - Source: https://etherplay.io/blog/natural-composability - Submitted by ronan.eth, 5 upvotes, 0 comments Etherplay argues that an Autonomous World is a game whose rules are immutable and permissionless, with no overlord or developer able to update them, and that such worlds can be extended through "Natural Composability," letting new rules emerge without permission. The article says Etherplay has built fully on-chain games since 2016-2017 and Autonomous Worlds since early 2019, starting with Ethernal and launching the autonomous Conquest.eth in April 2022. It cites Dark Forest, Conquest.eth and Mithraeum as examples of plugin systems where players add logic such as marketplaces without needing permission. It states that upgradeability would forfeit the immutability that lets extensions rely on the world's rules, and it sets logic hooks against this approach. ## 2. This is everything wrong with tech in 2023 (in no particular order) - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/This-is-everything-wrong-with-tech-in-2023-in-no-particular-order?index=0x653f8f5a84bcf29e58ae29ad2857435e057bd3bbf59ee905948fc74f7f763a77551f1ca0 - Source: https://joanwestenberg.medium.com/this-is-everything-wrong-with-tech-in-2023-in-no-particular-order-cfb189690d26 - Submitted by joanwestenberg.eth, 6 upvotes, 0 comments Addressing the reckless pursuit of growth and profits is presented as the only way for technology to fulfill its potential as a force for human betterment rather than a catalyst for dystopia. This pursuit has produced a culture of hubris and impunity that disregards harms to users, workers, society, and the environment. Cited flaws include the obsession with speed and scale over responsible development, discrimination, and lack of diversity, which reflect callousness, indifference, and irresponsibility in the tech sector's drive for disruption. ## 3. Sam Bankman-Fried: guilty on all charges - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Sam-Bankman-Fried-guilty-on-all-charges?index=0x6544966efc61eeacc33722aec9d6811ec0859d5d7d86ddefed82ebb125130701588098d5 - Source: https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/sam-bankman-fried-guilty-on-all-charges - Submitted by misha, 6 upvotes, 0 comments Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven counts of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, with jurors deliberating for less than five hours. The verdict came a year to the day after CoinDesk published the leaked balance sheet that led to the collapse of FTX. The five wire fraud and money laundering charges each carry maximum sentences of twenty years, while the securities and commodities fraud charges carry five years each. Sentencing is scheduled for March 28, though that date is subject to change, and a second trial on five further charges is set to begin March 11. ## 4. The Future of the Blogosphere - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/The-Future-of-the-Blogosphere?index=0x65461ef97d75d9854eef925e225a159dbc979576f551d64583b02ec6115953405f4247f5 - Source: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2023/11/02/the-future-of-the-blogosphere - Submitted by tim, 5 upvotes, 0 comments The author argues that the blogosphere is aging and enshittifying at both the technical and cultural levels, and that its current political-economic flavor, which he calls blogospherism, is doomed in its present form. He describes a recent bug where UTF-8 characters appeared as garbled text on his blog, a problem caused by decades of accumulated legacy issues in WordPress and MySQL and fixed by Dorian Taylor with help from Artem Litvinovich. He argues that complex technologies inevitably decay regardless of their politics, and that new movements must reinvent foundations rather than start from values. ## 5. They Cracked the Code to a Locked USB Drive Worth $235 Million in Bitcoin. - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/They-Cracked-the-Code-to-a-Locked-USB-Drive-Worth-dollar235-Million-in-Bitcoin?index=0x65477d205ba5be556a1371063be7732c38bb684e3cf576cd6bc081300f76407b7981cf92 - Source: https://www.wired.com/story/unciphered-ironkey-password-cracking-bitcoin - Submitted by misha, 5 upvotes, 0 comments Hackers at the startup Unciphered say they have developed a technique to crack a decade-old IronKey encrypted USB drive that holds 7,002 bitcoins, worth about $235 million at current rates, but the drive's owner, Stefan Thomas, has declined their help. Unciphered demonstrated the method by unlocking a passphrase WIRED had set on a drive, after about 200 trillion guesses on a high-performance computer. Thomas told WIRED he has already been working with other experts and has a "handshake deal" with two other teams, while Unciphered director of operations Nick Fedoroff said, "Now we have to crack Stefan." ## 6. Open Source AI & Bioterrorism Risk - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Open-Source-AI-and-Bioterrorism-Risk?index=0x65468b695fcb66d7e5e624d8e7848aac3cfabfc0ce6ef8b294bb6b8562597b2f65792a85 - Source: https://1a3orn.com/sub/essays-propaganda-or-science.html - Submitted by m-j-r.eth, 4 upvotes, 0 comments The author examines the biorisk citations in "Open-Sourcing Highly Capable Foundation Models," a Center for the Governance of AI policy paper that recommends against open-sourcing highly capable foundation models, and concludes that they do not supply good evidence for that recommendation. The strongest cited material is Anthropic statements, which rest on data outside Anthropic cannot see, and the remaining citations rest mainly on one experiment without a control group. The author also argues that the paper never shows that LLMs supply information humans cannot easily find elsewhere, a principle the paper itself acknowledges, and that it never shows that missing knowledge is a significant barrier to bioweapons creation. ## 7. The product manager role is a mistake - Software Product Development Pills - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/The-product-manager-role-is-a-mistake-Software-Product-Development-Pills?index=0x653fbe56585d51eea3ec603c24d94b9efbb25750c00028a2901f028bae00ed696ac0d24f - Source: https://sollecitom.github.io/software-product-development-blog/posts/2023/2023-10-21-product-manager-role-is-a-mistake - Submitted by ferran.eth, 4 upvotes, 0 comments The article argues that putting a career product manager in sole control of a software product company is a mistake, because such people lack the vision and drive that the model demands. It contends that the problem lies less with single-person leadership than with who is chosen, since great leaders such as Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are not product managers. Without a truly great leader, the author says, PMs tend to hide behind data, frameworks and committees, which drives away the best talent and leaves the company drifting toward irrelevance. The author proposes instead hiring great people in teams with minimal overlap and no individual responsibilities, while noting that some PMs can be tremendous but are a small minority. ## 8. Nouns Onchain Updates - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Nouns-Onchain-Updates?index=0x6542c2e814753e948b5f9611f6f073ff8dba43a794e4ee65a703eb72742de437ed760a9a - Source: https://www.updates.wtf - Submitted by tim, 4 upvotes, 0 comments This educational article explains cryptocurrencies and how they are traded on exchanges, through Forex brokers, and via futures. It says Bitcoin was devised in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto and launched its blockchain in 2009, and that the biggest exchanges offer margin leverage from 1:2 to 1:5. It notes that brokers typically offer crypto as CFDs, where trades are bets against the broker rather than exchanges between assets. The article also states that, while cryptocurrencies appreciated strongly against the US dollar over the last 10 years, active trading may suit some traders better than buy-and-hold, though some altcoins could lose their value completely. ## 9. EF's guide to Devconnect - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/EFs-guide-to-Devconnect?index=0x6545fee006ffe90ea1a44ee95c754af1efb9c0f7d32b7882988bfccc6c06db4072959e11 - Source: https://blog.ethereum.org/2023/11/03/devconnect-ist-update-2 - Submitted by macbudkowski.eth, 4 upvotes, 0 comments This page is a calendar of side events held around DevConnect, an Ethereum developer gathering in Istanbul in November 2023, listed with their hosts and dates. Events cover topics including Autonomous Worlds, decentralized insurance, Ethereum staking, Starknet, L2 scaling, EVM development, and zero-knowledge proofs. Examples include L2DAYS Istanbul, a two-day technical conference on Ethereum L2 scaling run by L2BEAT and Scroll on November 14 and 15, 2023, and the Programmable Cryptography Conference, hosted by 0xPARC and Privacy & Scaling Explorations on November 16 and 17, 2023. Most listings give a single host, date, and short description. ## 10. We are Shoggoth Systems - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/We-are-Shoggoth-Systems?index=0x6547c833173ab7f064c57a16dfb74aa715e2ab7c47d2f24282aa0276e919ab724a4f1cad - Source: https://shoggoth.systems - Submitted by misha, 4 upvotes, 0 comments ## 11. Latent Cultural Potential - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Latent-Cultural-Potential?index=0x6547ee3b311c0b3fa6a40b0f1727d931510013869fc0c81c9e4023513e8f0049ce5c90b0 - Source: https://medium.com/etherscan-blog/latent-cultural-potential-caf1d1e3d42c - Submitted by misha, 4 upvotes, 0 comments NFTs, especially those stored fully on-chain, are argued to have latent cultural potential: their assets, community records and activity stay on the ledger and can be rediscovered long after they were forgotten. The author supports this with examples such as Simon de la Rouviere's "Witness the Draft," which collectors can open and close on-chain indefinitely, and the ChainFaces contract, whose metadata can be recovered directly. The post also points to the MoonCats, a 2017 project rediscovered on March 12, 2021, when all remaining MoonCats were rescued within a few hours, and the author's own KnownOrigin visualization, which tracks artist activity over time. ## 12. NFT: Constraint - Eric Andwer - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/NFT-Constraint-Eric-Andwer?index=0x654208662a88a5fd9b6f4d8443aec4d37c29361511c38d8faed98eb96974344bd13e20ba - Source: https://verse.works/exhibitions/constraint - Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 0 comments Eric Andwer's NFT project Constraint uses generative code to express emotion, drawing on his experience with depression and his belief that life is messy. He began making generative art in 2020 after discovering Art Blocks, which he saw as a way to bring images to life that his drawing skills could not produce. The article says Eric sees creating art as a release for anger, frustration, anxiety and depression. It describes the outputs' gritty textures, drips, and colour palettes, such as bold reds and yellows for aggression or confidence and muted tones for feeling subdued. ## 13. Sam Bankman-Fried is a feature, not a bug. - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Sam-Bankman-Fried-is-a-feature-not-a-bug?index=0x65471ab0370a0399c015c6dcad3598e07fbd6dcb539927aa898c54f21d285ae1e44e82e0 - Source: https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/sam-bankman-fried-is-a-feature-not-a-bug - Submitted by joanwestenberg.eth, 3 upvotes, 0 comments ## 14. Different types of layer 2s - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Different-types-of-layer-2s?index=0x6540d83375672202ab67d1024701a4084506a4692623b5af527fb87895ca7a22b643f3a3 - Source: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/10/31/l2types.html - Submitted by tim, 4 upvotes, 0 comments Vitalik Buterin's article "Different types of layer 2s" argues that layer 2 projects are becoming more heterogeneous, and that applications should choose a point on a spectrum between rollups and validiums based on their own security and fee needs. Rollups post computation proofs and data to Ethereum layer 1, so assets can always be withdrawn to L1, while validiums store data off-chain, so data availability failures can cause assets to be lost but not stolen. Ethereum's Dencun upgrade, via EIP-4844, is said to provide about 32 kB/sec of onchain data availability, with full danksharding eventually targeting about 1.3 MB/sec. The article also says a bridge that only checks consensus signatures gives no asset guarantees, while adding a ZK-SNARK check makes the chain's security model match a validium's. ## 15. Countries that are democracies and autocracies - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Countries-that-are-democracies-and-autocracies?index=0x6542cb290cb4b8b9a57373c549be1451040064b26f33708eb4891fe52c94a0133e62247a - Source: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/countries-democracies-autocracies-row?time=1898..2022 - Submitted by tim, 4 upvotes, 0 comments ## 16. Each group is some percent crazy assholes - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Each-group-is-some-percent-crazy-assholes?index=0x65435de94049e6faaf0cfc0bca5fa25efee209970a3e0112526f69ecd538ead9db74865d - Source: https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2939 - Submitted by macbudkowski.eth, 4 upvotes, 0 comments ## 17. Explore a fork of the Solana codebase for NewChain - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Explore-a-fork-of-the-Solana-codebase-for-NewChain?index=0x654278a08c44a977ce54e902e6ee3187c75f0d5aae78cfb7ecfd7ad7b33fdccf5edd30ee - Source: https://forum.makerdao.com/t/explore-a-fork-of-the-solana-codebase-for-newchain/21822 - Submitted by chaomons.eth, 3 upvotes, 0 comments Rune (the author is not named in the text; the post is by an unnamed Maker contributor) argues that forking an existing open-source blockchain is the best route for NewChain. Wait, correction: the text does not name its author, so the claim should be stated without attribution. The article argues that the Solana codebase is the most promising foundation for NewChain, the stand-alone blockchain planned for the fifth and final phase of Endgame, which rebuilds the Maker Protocol's backend and SubDAOs. It cites Solana's engineering quality, its two client implementations, its resilience through the FTX collapse, and the Pyth project's adapted Solana appchain as reasons. It also proposes a Two-Stage Gravity Bridge from NewChain to Solana, alongside the one to Ethereum, and presents Cosmos as the other main option, with the text saying it would cost more to keep performant. ## 18. Bankless: How Crypto Saves The Internet with Li Jin & Eugene Wei - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Bankless-How-Crypto-Saves-The-Internet-with-Li-Jin-and-Eugene-Wei?index=0x6543b77e364e71e28f1be41546d7fc1d060cde3e9f0eee3cb84d68ab5cb2bd6dbe6867eb - Source: https://open.spotify.com/episode/32El1BXQm3PzLU871JMtfG?si=uFmtcEktQ5Celd0QazM2dA - Submitted by tim, 3 upvotes, 0 comments ## 19. RetroPGF approved project attestations - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/RetroPGF-approved-project-attestations?index=0x65452ea8a97644aa8cf76c94d16cc4c27d4503017033878024a8bacafbf34d995456b45f - Source: https://optimism.easscan.org/schema/view/0xebbf697d5d3ca4b53579917ffc3597fb8d1a85b8c6ca10ec10039709903b9277 - Submitted by matallo.eth, 3 upvotes, 0 comments The Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) hosts a revocable schema called "RetroPGF 3 Approved/Removed Project," which defines a single boolean field, boolApproved. The schema was created on 10/11/2023 and has 671 attestations listed under it. Recent entries, dated from one to two years ago, include both onchain and offchain attestations. EAS describes itself as a free, open-source, permissionless and tokenless public good. ## 20. Intellectual Property Is Becoming Irrelevant - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Intellectual-Property-Is-Becoming-Irrelevant?index=0x65462c674c0a60d4bc0cd8a2d016c57f2ef53487c2d3f0c13534205dd8da1d466cc6db2c - Source: https://timdaub.github.io/2021/08/22/intellectual-property-will-become-irrelevant - Submitted by tim, 3 upvotes, 0 comments The author argues that intellectual property is becoming irrelevant online, and that NFT-based IP registration misses this shift. Co-authored in 2019 for the COALA working group, the "COALA IP Specification" modeled IP licensing on blockchain, but it never gained traction, and its two most widely adopted ideas were anchoring data to prove existence at a point in time and mapping blockchain transfers onto IP rights. Platforms such as Zora, Ocean Protocol and OpenSea addressed some of the same problems without relying on IP licensing. The article says creators now succeed through performance and audience ownership on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitch, rather than through copyright, which it says mostly protects them through platform takedown mechanisms.