# Top stories on Kiwi News, week 2 2026

Mon 5 to Sun 11 January 2026
Page: https://news.kiwistand.com/weekly/2026-W02

The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 5 to Sun 11 January 2026, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 8 comments in total. Most-shared sources: farcaster.xyz, x.com.

Summaries are AI summaries of the linked article.

## 1. 2026: bye bye social media

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/2026-bye-bye-social-media?index=0x695fe27b577ed128dce9a286c52caf7ad37801c9e2d70deb6f1cec36900386c6b2b41bca
- Source: https://jtgi.xyz/posts/2026-01-04-quitting-social-media
- Submitted by tim, 5 upvotes, 1 comment

The author has quit social media for 2026 to focus on depth over breadth, replacing feeds like Twitter and Farcaster with RSS subscriptions to longer-form sources such as blogs. They say the aim is to build attention span and avoid self-destructive engagement, accepting that they will miss some timely content and may sometimes be bored. They also launched a minimal blog, written in Markdown from Obsidian, and plan to keep their Twitter and Farcaster accounts read-only with auto-posting, with a friend holding the password.

## 2. The Shortening Replacement Cycle and Crypto

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/The-Shortening-Replacement-Cycle-and-Crypto?index=0x695d24f840d41afc45d7852bb250c91b15eafbd1c62dd2d40662629bfba1616971702d99
- Source: https://research.auditless.com/p/the-shortening-replacement-cycle
- Submitted by auditless.eth, 5 upvotes, 0 comments

The author argues that crypto turns many finance and fintech problems into coding problems, which coding agents now make easier to solve. The post cites Vitalik's claim that Ethereum has become a high bandwidth network without sacrificing decentralization or consensus, enabled by zkEVMs, and says Opus 4.5 is the technical leap that convinced the general public about coding agents. It gives examples such as using crypto-economic incentives for running nodes, audited smart contracts for guaranteed payment, and Uniswap v4 hooks for liquidity. The author also says they stopped using no-code tools like n8n and Langflow for agent building in favor of coding in Cursor or Windsurf, because AI can't help build no-code pipelines and those pipelines aren't portable.

## 3. X raises $20B

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/X-raises-dollar20B?index=0x695da192031c52bc512cbc0329c2a0548a8e0a08fb65804047979169877695d50c0b37cf
- Source: https://x.ai/news/series-e
- Submitted by thatalexpalmer.eth, 5 upvotes, 0 comments

xAI completed its upsized Series E funding round, raising $20 billion, above the $15 billion targeted round size. Investors named in the announcement include Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX and Baron Capital Group, with NVIDIA and Cisco Investments as strategic investors. xAI says the company ended 2025 with over one million H100 GPU equivalents across Colossus I and II, and that its apps reach approximately 600 million monthly active users. The company also says Grok 5 is currently in training.

## 4. @VitalikButerin: Ethereum was created to set people free, not for efficiency

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/VitalikButerin-Ethereum-was-created-to-set-people-free-not-for-efficiency?index=0x695ce5f3e1c06b8ba65f1815d17a9397f228dc42d18b084c18b8b7ca6a9b20a9439f8100
- Source: https://x.com/vitalikbuterin/status/2008174642066845778?s=12
- Submitted by tim, 5 upvotes, 0 comments

Vitalik Buterin argues that Ethereum was created to set people free rather than to make finance efficient or apps convenient, and that its primary game should be resilience. He describes resilience as minimizing the chance of catastrophic loss, such as a deplatformed user, a bankrupt developer, a Cloudflare outage, or a cyberwar, so that the network keeps working as intended. He says efficiency and convenience are games that large corporate players will always be better at. He concludes that Ethereum must first be decentralized, permissionless and resilient blockspace, and only then make that blockspace abundant.

## 5. Developer Tooling Coordinator

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Developer-Tooling-Coordinator?index=0x695c4998a3f70c6abfbd3d8f2f71e805dfaaf12fbbee97521e6f42b74a234aefe2037c9b
- Source: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ethereum-foundation/84f239ee-f61a-48d0-a28f-c95c4a0226c1
- Submitted by tim, 3 upvotes, 2 comments

## 6. Crypto wallet firm Ledger faces new data breach through Global-e partner 

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Crypto-wallet-firm-Ledger-faces-new-data-breach-through-Global-e-partner?index=0x695c4b2d63038d3a39160aaaf7101b542df2cf8ddfa17b12cedbdf13872f2c90c551eaf7
- Source: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/05/crypto-wallet-firm-ledger-faces-data-breach-through-global-e-partner
- Submitted by misha, 5 upvotes, 0 comments

Crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger is dealing with a data exposure incident at its third-party payment processor, Global-e, which exposed names and contact information of Ledger customers. Global-e's email notification to customers, first shared by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT on X, did not disclose how many clients were affected or when the exploit occurred. Ledger told CoinDesk that the breach occurred at Global-e, not on Ledger's platform, hardware or software, and that payment information was not involved. Ledger also said an unauthorized party accessed a Global-e cloud system holding order data from multiple other brands.

## 7. Should GnosisDAO establish bug bounty coverage for client code?

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Should-GnosisDAO-establish-bug-bounty-coverage-for-client-code?index=0x695e888daba4257a9641640f81ce72dceb4ae326796f88370225d6a5a46117b65ae6b61a
- Source: https://forum.gnosis.io/t/should-gnosisdao-establish-bug-bounty-coverage-for-client-code-and-compensate-the-eip-7702-disclosure/11951?u=mdr
- Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 3 comments

A proposal asks whether GnosisDAO should extend bug bounty coverage to Gnosis Chain execution client code and pay $100,000 for a disclosed EIP-7702 censorship bypass. The bypass was disclosed privately to the Gnosis Chain security team on November 5, 2025, during the Balancer exploit, and a second soft fork addressing it was deployed on November 7. The proposal states that $5,308,954.42 was recovered when the hard fork executed on December 22, 2025, and that the $100,000 request is about 2% of that amount. It also notes that the current Immunefi bounty covers only the AMB and Omnibridge contracts.

## 8. trustlessness.eth

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/trustlessnesseth?index=0x695bc3766819671f5435c88c479c3812f3ff36eb55f5d12dae330695463daf66fa9b2e16
- Source: https://trustlessness.eth.limo
- Submitted by pedrovilela.eth, 4 upvotes, 0 comments

## 9. @timdaub.eth: Drawdown analysis of Oct 10 market maker crash using Claude

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/timdaubeth-Drawdown-analysis-of-Oct-10-market-maker-crash-using-Claude?index=0x695f9a1c0f6b7f507b134352d998b0a6ce29873b9400c0304a2564ff11dc0c2fbb520cfb
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/timdaub.eth/0x79020902
- Submitted by tim, 4 upvotes, 0 comments

A drawdown analysis of the October 10 market maker crash tests Arthur Hayes's view that projects with real communities and price floors should hold up after the flash crash, while projects kept up by market makers should show deep drawdowns. timdaub.eth ran Claude on a Hetzner instance to scan the top 200 CoinGecko projects and list their deepest drawdowns since October 10.

## 10. The Problem with Passkeys

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/The-Problem-with-Passkeys?index=0x69624caebdf107a2a969f17ab7d998a4707b6d91c767a6e24ad7db12b89154f2a9df9708
- Source: https://www.varunsrinivasan.com/2026/01/10/the-problem-with-passkeys
- Submitted by tim, 3 upvotes, 1 comment

Passkeys are argued to be a poor primary signer for crypto wallets, and the article concludes they work best for recovery or as secondary signers, with server-side wallets a better fit for consumer apps. Passkeys do not move across device ecosystems, so apps still ask users to back up a seed phrase, and the OS-controlled signing flow says "logging in" and shows no transaction details. Passkey standards and implementations also do not support the elliptic curves and signature formats used by Ethereum and Solana, so wallets must rely on smart contracts that must be updated on every chain. The article notes that server-side wallets trade user experience for reliance on the provider's TEE implementation and infrastructure security.

## 11. NFT Paris Conference (cancelled)

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/NFT-Paris-Conference-cancelled?index=0x695cbd3dd1e0891be9ab8d193ec7d35463e19e5fdf19101105bd24232af389e1daf0b748
- Source: https://www.nftparis.xyz
- Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 0 comments

## 12. @kazani: digital sex rising while real relationships face more friction

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/kazani-digital-sex-rising-while-real-relationships-face-more-friction?index=0x695d1e8c4bf69cc814f7c87b63e0e7376cacb6dcfa90c3d139cb158808e579e9f0adfe23
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/kazani/0x132ef398
- Submitted by @kazani, 3 upvotes, 0 comments

## 13. ZORA Drops as Creator Coins Disappoint Yet Again

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/ZORA-Drops-as-Creator-Coins-Disappoint-Yet-Again?index=0x695d8055827a249a5441025ccf060559fc19e027d2da793661dcd5dcf3bd516941d2db22
- Source: https://thedefiant.io/news/markets/zora-drops-as-creator-coins-disappoint
- Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 0 comments

## 14. @nikitabier: CT is dying from suicide, not the algorithm—reply spam wastes reach

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/nikitabier-CT-is-dying-from-suicide-not-the-algorithmreply-spam-wastes-reach?index=0x696225bf10a71f39a03af86e176e579e263d2440834babf2fb24469e8e3abea7fc190039
- Source: https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2009858112371687923?s=12
- Submitted by tim, 2 upvotes, 1 comment

## 15. Suavemente

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Suavemente?index=0x695d63c9efff0607d45819e71ca683efe4f57c486396e426e7e1f8cb850663051cd3484c
- Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/cryptohayes/p/suavemente?r=3ptcv
- Submitted by tim, 3 upvotes, 0 comments

The author, writing under the title "Suavemente," argues that the US action in Venezuela matters for Bitcoin mainly through its effect on US money printing, judged by whether oil prices rise or fall alongside nominal GDP. The argument rests on a claim that Trump needs a hot economy without rising gasoline prices to win the 2026 and 2028 elections, and that oil prices above roughly 10-year yields near 5% would force politicians to restrain credit creation. The piece cites the MOVE Index spiking to an intraday high of 172 during the April 2025 tariff episode as an example of how volatility can change policy, and it concludes that falling oil and expanding credit favor Bitcoin.

## 16. A-Z of Digital Art 2026

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/A-Z-of-Digital-Art-2026?index=0x695f7a9541e8ba3680e518a2b614223ea20dca09d030d5c6071b80c2fec35c88f49d0cec
- Source: https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/a-z-of-digital-art-2026-art-and-technology-a-to-z
- Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 0 comments

## 17. LESS

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/LESS?index=0x695e1843a0884a77102f3af9b78a3c26410e5f10b6a0abaca46236c52c4bb4c4ce7403da
- Source: https://less.ripe.wtf
- Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 0 comments

LESS is a networked generative NFT collection in which each artwork records a moment when its linked token buys and burns part of its own supply. The project pairs the collection with a TokenWorks recursive strategy token, where every trade on its Uniswap pool sends ETH into a contract that is later used to buy and burn the token. When enough ETH accumulates, anyone can trigger a buy and burn, which opens a 90-minute mint window, and mints are generated from the system state at that moment. Each image is rendered from three Unicode block characters and the 16-color CGA palette, showing only the compression points where simulated folds intersect. If nobody mints during a window, the burn still occurs onchain but leaves no visible trace in the collection.

## 18. vitalik.eth: Ethereum as Linux and BitTorrent, serving purists and billions

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/vitaliketh-Ethereum-as-Linux-and-BitTorrent-serving-purists-and-billions?index=0x695f597e6871ead0163a028cb059ee9e2b1d04709fa8f33563d41908952a97a585ee62e0
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/vitalik.eth/0x89f865a1
- Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 0 comments

Vitalik Buterin compares Ethereum to Linux and BitTorrent, arguing that Ethereum should serve purist users while also reaching mass adoption. He writes that BitTorrent combines decentralization with mass scale, and that Ethereum aims to do the same with consensus. He notes that Linux is free and open source, is depended on by billions of people and enterprises, and is used by governments, while distributions such as Arch serve highly purist, minimalistic users. He argues that Ethereum L1 should serve as a financial home for people seeking autonomy, and that this is compatible with broad value for large numbers of people.

## 19. Ralph Wiggum: a bash loop that forces Claude to retry until tasks complete

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Ralph-Wiggum-a-bash-loop-that-forces-Claude-to-retry-until-tasks-complete?index=0x6960ccc0c29afe6273d570653a245ab90b93a2dfdbdc75fbf5051182bda8359c93e69669
- Source: https://farcaster.xyz/kazani/0x4bc760e9
- Submitted by @kazani, 2 upvotes, 0 comments

Ralph Wiggum is a name for an AI coding technique created by Geoffrey Huntley, an Australian open-source developer, that runs Claude Code in a bash loop until a task is solved. Huntley reportedly built the approach, which is about 5 lines of bash, to address the bottleneck of humans repeatedly checking the AI's mistakes. The workflow gives Claude a task and a completion promise, then blocks exit attempts and reruns the same prompt until the promise is fulfilled. Anthropic added a plugin for it to Claude Code on December 25 and renamed it ralph-loop on January 6. The article advises setting --max-iterations to 20-50 and running it in isolated environments, because the required --dangerously-skip-permissions flag gives full terminal control.

## 20. Kiwi News Weekly Digest — Jan 09, 2026

- Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Kiwi-News-Weekly-Digest-Jan-09-2026?index=0x696135ffa32ddb11ab7dd9da36e67fc16fe45ef8df8d1bab0cf5289ab036fe3f077550f2
- Source: https://buttondown.com/kiwi-news-weekly/archive/kiwi-news-weekly-digest-jan-09-2026
- Submitted by tim, 2 upvotes, 0 comments