# Top stories on Kiwi News, week 43 2025

Mon 20 to Sun 26 October 2025
Page: https://news.kiwistand.com/weekly/2025-W43

The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 20 to Sun 26 October 2025, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 32 comments in total. Most-shared sources: farcaster.xyz, x.com.

Summaries are AI summaries of the linked article.

## 1. DIDs are a Dead End

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/DIDs-are-a-Dead-End?index=0x68f7fd3b87c97bd70b02b65e360d4b7e53f7c91bc58e4953c3ef93017ba0b7bffca2b06c
- Source: https://jthor.eth.link/blog/2025/10/21/did-dead-end
- Submitted by misha, 10 upvotes, 1 comment

The author argues that Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) are a dead end and that the same identity functions can be achieved by choosing one public key infrastructure, such as Ethereum, without DIDs. Drawing on work at uPort and Ceramic Network, the author says DIDs are only meaningful with blockchains, since trustless key rotation ordering requires one, while the spec leaves resolution to implementers. That leaves apps relying on centralized resolvers like the Universal Resolver, which the author says removes the value of the shared format. The article points to Ethereum options such as ENS names for stable identifiers, ZuPass for zero-knowledge selective disclosure, and on-chain registries for credential revocation.

## 2. One long memo

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/One-long-memo?index=0x68f5f090c4d8195977394e17bb725f4e96190d2cd6db8625f5a12b2ea70bf40f454940de
- Source: https://gist.github.com/karalabe/a2bc53436f29e0711fe680d59e180f6c
- Submitted by tim, 9 upvotes, 2 comments

The author, Peter (a Geth team member), writes that Ethereum has failed for him, citing three reasons: a gap between how the Ethereum Foundation publicly describes his leadership role and how it treats him in private, unfair pay that he says pushed Foundation staff toward outside compensation, and a small group of well-connected figures around Vitalik Buterin who he says control which projects succeed. He says he does not see the ecosystem as fixable and feels stuck between staying and leaving. He cites his own total compensation for six years at the Foundation as $625K before taxes.

## 3. Introducing ZERA: an UI to reclaim assets from Zora’s ETH mainnet contracts.

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Introducing-ZERA-an-UI-to-reclaim-assets-from-Zoras-ETH-mainnet-contracts?index=0x68f9025066521d094649a2652648885ac13751142332f1b9ca9911ee9a8984edbc018040
- Source: https://zera.uint.studio
- Submitted by pedrovictor.eth, 8 upvotes, 2 comments

ZERA is an alternative user interface that lets people reclaim NFTs and tokens still held in Zora's Ethereum mainnet contracts after Zora deprecated the interface for auctions and trading. The page says WETH, stablecoins, ERC-20 tokens from past bids, and thousands of NFTs remain escrowed in those abandoned contracts. Since October 22, 2025, the tool reports 0 of 758 market bids settled, 0 of 158 auctions settled, and 0 of 3061 escrowed NFTs reclaimed. The tool is made by uint.studio, is open-source, and charges no fee beyond gas, though donations are accepted.

## 4. a16z-Backed Startup Sells Thousands of ‘Synthetic Influencers’ to Manipulate

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/a16z-Backed-Startup-Sells-Thousands-of-Synthetic-Influencers-to-Manipulate?index=0x68fc070f85e9fe0dbc18ac9eb023bca732cab4aced1c03070fe151003a856a14ad60a033
- Source: https://www.404media.co/a16z-backed-startup-sells-thousands-of-synthetic-influencers-to-manipulate-social-media-as-a-service
- Submitted by misha, 8 upvotes, 2 comments

Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), is pitching an AI-powered service that lets clients orchestrate actions on thousands of social media accounts, a practice that violates the policies of all major platforms. According to the company's site, its deployment layer mimics natural user interaction on physical devices so that content appears human to algorithms. Doublespeed did not respond to a request for comment, but the service appears designed to evade platform detection, using AI to generate accounts and posts with a human doing 5 percent of "touch up" work at the end.

## 5. @dwr: Farcaster rolls out new brand with Primary Studio refresh

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/dwr-Farcaster-rolls-out-new-brand-with-Primary-Studio-refresh?index=0x68f66844237df5a5c20c1c9f731a879d70ba9161a557dd5f728a1bf43aee0b41f074727d
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/dwr/0x3e688cb4
- Submitted by pedrovilela.eth, 5 upvotes, 7 comments

## 6. The Social

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/The-Social?index=0x68f68af85eae041a036f2f2fb80b61febb889c9b95d22cca985c9cfb3680dd563b269183
- Source: https://the-social.app
- Submitted by misha, 5 upvotes, 3 comments

A landing page promotes a new invite-only social app for staying connected with people users actually care about. It says current feeds stopped showing posts from those people and instead push random content, which AI now generates and which contains no real information. The proposed platform would have no ads, AI, spam, bots or influencers, and would require a paid membership. Its stated aim is to be owned by the people who use it.

## 7. @vgr: Peter Drucker's 1950s parable about Ethereum block builders

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/vgr-Peter-Druckers-1950s-parable-about-Ethereum-block-builders?index=0x68f944e8dd588e21accf198a1d99ef352ead869c576443bf5d61440cb0aa6ca3b1509fed
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/vgr/0xb803162c
- Submitted by misha, 5 upvotes, 4 comments

Vitalik Buterin's tweet, shared as @vgr, presents a parable attributed to Peter Drucker in which the problem with Ethereum block builders is the one focused on maximizing efficiency. In the parable, three block builders are asked what they are doing: the first says building blocks for a fair return, the second says building the fastest, cheapest, most efficiently knapsacked blocks in the mempool, and the third says building a cypherpunk cathedral. The attributed commentary says the first and third builders are not problems, while the second is.

## 8. State of Crypto 2025: The year crypto went mainstream

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/State-of-Crypto-2025-The-year-crypto-went-mainstream?index=0x68fc825188667084e17500bbef084e1e8c8beafad6d7af2a3acd0f76774a875c6c14647d
- Source: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/state-of-crypto-report-2025#stablecoins-went-mainstream
- Submitted by rvolz.eth, 5 upvotes, 2 comments

The State of Crypto 2025 report describes 2025 as the year crypto went mainstream, marking a period of industry maturation. Stablecoins handled $46 trillion in transactions over the last year, nearly three times Visa's volume, though the report notes the comparison is not apples-to-apples. Over $175 billion sits in Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded products, up 169% from $65 billion a year earlier. Estimates put active crypto users at 40 to 70 million, while 716 million people own crypto.

## 9. @kazani.eth: X Chat claims full encryption but admits no MITM protection

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/kazanieth-X-Chat-claims-full-encryption-but-admits-no-MITM-protection?index=0x68f75dd927f1463e649b19c78cc3ad70fa12a4f91c68bd2c825e684a75a402e1341822a2
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/kazani.eth/0x5c32ceba
- Submitted by @kazani, 6 upvotes, 0 comments

## 10. @kenny: Vitalik's Farcaster reply gets only 1 like, highlights discovery problem

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/kenny-Vitaliks-Farcaster-reply-gets-only-1-like-highlights-discovery-problem?index=0x68f68986147277fb1d2d93c1eefae867937562a51bda8ac1e5fc5b8043b09d5fa989b832
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/kenny/0x2a98a700
- Submitted by @timdaub.eth, 5 upvotes, 2 comments

## 11. kiwistand@0.12.0 released: Any Ethereum address can now use Kiwi News

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/kiwistand0120-released-Any-Ethereum-address-can-now-use-Kiwi-News?index=0x68fb650b3ad3ec117265a746b93b0b3818863e9b45207d759ee09275b486855e976649e5
- Source: https://github.com/attestate/kiwistand/blob/main/changelog.md#0120
- Submitted by tim, 5 upvotes, 2 comments

Kiwistand release 0.12.0 removes the Kiwi Pass NFT-based access control system, leaving delegation as the only access control, so any Ethereum address can act on its own behalf. If an address has delegated to another address, resolveIdentity() resolves it to the delegator. The release bumps pubsub topics from 8.0.0 to 9.0.0 and protocols from 11.0.0 to 12.0.0, and it replaces the /allowlist endpoint with /api/v1/delegations. Node operators need only update to the latest version, and existing delegations continue to work without manual migration.

## 12. Major AWS outage takes down Fortnite, Alexa, Snapchat, and more

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Major-AWS-outage-takes-down-Fortnite-Alexa-Snapchat-and-more?index=0x68f5f45b94a5bb644e9e362215c761716c01b3e6491462069bf3b36d86c1d8171d81a6c7
- Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/802486/aws-outage-alexa-fortnite-snapchat-offline
- Submitted by misha, 6 upvotes, 1 comment

A major AWS outage on Monday morning took down multiple online services for several hours, including Amazon, Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, ChatGPT, and Epic Games Store. AWS's dashboard first reported issues affecting the US-EAST-1 Region at 3:11AM ET, and Amazon attributed the outage to resolution issues in its domain name system (DNS). Amazon later said at 6:35AM ET that the underlying issue "has been fully mitigated," and provided a final update at 6:53PM ET stating that all AWS services returned to normal operations by 6:01PM ET.

## 13. Dissecting Substack’s Inverted Revenue Curve

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Dissecting-Substacks-Inverted-Revenue-Curve?index=0x68fe8c4c40a82c792ee4727bf9f62c270bdc95383f5053fa01f48c624b92b3bd83646ebd
- Source: https://sceneswithsimon.com/p/sunday-edition-21-dissecting-substacks
- Submitted by misha, 6 upvotes, 0 comments

Substack's revenue does not concentrate among its most popular creators the way it does on ad-supported platforms, where a small share of creators earn most of the money. Simon argues that Substack sells access rather than attention, so paying subscribers express individual desire and support smaller writers. He is not fully convinced that direct payment alone explains the difference and suggests something else inside Substack is also at work. He also says he found no convincing numbers for Patreon or OnlyFans that would show a different pattern.

## 14. @VarrockBank: Ethereum lead engineer paid $105k

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/VarrockBank-Ethereum-lead-engineer-paid-dollar105k?index=0x68f679504a6e285413332792e971930d771f23f78ab45eddd9504ead26240923565995e4
- Source: https://x.com/VarrockBank/status/1980307862984487329?s=19&t=hkoOJff3AhegZiPwiRM0_A
- Submitted by macbudkowski.eth, 6 upvotes, 1 comment

## 15. Weaponized Design and the Digital Identity Event Horizon with Cade Diehm

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Weaponized-Design-and-the-Digital-Identity-Event-Horizon-with-Cade-Diehm?index=0x68f94ac18684747e542200b629d7fea5c2923f948cf12c4bd8d8195e8f17bfa129578245
- Source: https://theblockchainsocialist.com/weaponized-design-and-the-digital-identity-event-horizon-with-cade-diehm
- Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 3 comments

Cade Diehm, Head of Research at the World Ethical Data Foundation and founder of New Design Congress, discusses Weaponised Design in a podcast interview with The Blockchain Socialist. Diehm defines it as cases where an interface or system harms its users while performing entirely within its expected behaviour. The conversation also covers his research on the brittleness of digital identity and his experience with early crypto. His career also includes Deloitte Australia, CoinJar and Tactical Tech.

## 16. @addicteddotfun: $3.5M revenue in 48h on Solana after 4 years on Ethereum/Base

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/addicteddotfun-dollar35M-revenue-in-48h-on-Solana-after-4-years-on-EthereumBase?index=0x68f8a32f8a4ba2764ffe64bcdeb014b97cfa634b744d67133d8dd63f9aaf7ade06765772
- Source: https://x.com/addicteddotfun/status/1980332207421222977
- Submitted by tim, 5 upvotes, 0 comments

Addicted, a consumer app team, says it moved from Ethereum and Base to Solana six months ago after four years of building on those chains without traction. The team reports that after launching Addicted on Solana it earned $3.5M in revenue in 48 hours, which it says surpassed Pump.fun's 24-hour revenue. It attributes its success to what it describes as Solana's open, builder-first culture, citing responsive support, introductions to other teams, and help reaching the public. The team also says it received no support on Base, where it launched six-plus products, and it names several Solana consumer apps as evidence of the ecosystem's strength.

## 17. Rekt - We Have a Centralization Issue

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Rekt-We-Have-a-Centralization-Issue?index=0x68f7ddb667f4072b60281077fcf7250917f981305d01f1a86c8b5a9e71eb00f2df653863
- Source: https://rekt.news/we-have-centralization-issue
- Submitted by pedrovilela.eth, 5 upvotes, 0 comments

The article argues that the October 20, 2025 AWS US-EAST-1 outage exposed crypto's dependence on centralized cloud infrastructure, even though no blockchain failed. It says Infura, which connects MetaMask to blockchains, reported outages across Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Linea, Base, and Scroll during the DNS failures in Amazon's DynamoDB endpoint. It also states that roughly 2,368 Ethereum execution nodes, about 37% of the network, sit on AWS, and that Coinbase and Base were temporarily unusable. The text recommends multi-cloud strategies and decentralized alternatives such as Filecoin, IPFS, Arweave, and Akash Network, while noting they remain marginal.

## 18. @brian_armstrong: Base is building private transactions with Iron Fish team

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/brianarmstrong-Base-is-building-private-transactions-with-Iron-Fish-team?index=0x68f7f00e3b322f1a10cd8d8deb194ce4f07e1f16905165990321ef089fbbb2bd0264bad3
- Source: https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1980732855014813712?s=46
- Submitted by pedrovilela.eth, 5 upvotes, 0 comments

## 19. @stephancill: Privy and Farcaster can still collude to recover your wallet

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/stephancill-Privy-and-Farcaster-can-still-collude-to-recover-your-wallet?index=0x68fce1596d6c89427cafea789baad0cdeda32fb05576d28940aa3ca6233b68cd95987309
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/stephancill/0xfa4fe038
- Submitted by @timdaub.eth, 6 upvotes, 0 comments

## 20. @sandeepnailwal: Questioning loyalty to Ethereum after years of being excluded

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/sandeepnailwal-Questioning-loyalty-to-Ethereum-after-years-of-being-excluded?index=0x68f753a36fd27204b04ca38bd2312a02784c187dffbd8f61835128b614c94cad0571049d
- Source: https://x.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1980367655937929392
- Submitted by tim, 5 upvotes, 0 comments