# Top stories on Kiwi News, week 9 2026 Mon 23 February to Sun 1 March 2026 Page: https://news.kiwistand.com/weekly/2026-W09 The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 23 February to Sun 1 March 2026, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 28 comments in total. Most-shared sources: firefly.social, x.com, farcaster.xyz. Summaries are AI summaries of the linked article. ## 1. @cryptorover: Dutch Minister of Finance cancels 36% tax on unrealized gains - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/cryptorover-Dutch-Minister-of-Finance-cancels-36percent-tax-on-unrealized-gains?index=0x699f026960349f7a4fe4f2f33be6af28248e4ca0f00ebc41cfe10263cdca3773f8fd3206 - Source: https://x.com/cryptorover/status/2026607387289833737?s=12 - Submitted by tim, 5 upvotes, 2 comments ## 2. Fapcaster | The Private Adult Network - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Fapcaster-or-The-Private-Adult-Network?index=0x699ec2ca7fde4ae845ae60427e43d1437574999ea98f95b5838849b859624d8c96ccc8c6 - Source: https://www.fapcaster.com - Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 4 comments Fapcaster is a proposed adult content platform that presents itself as privacy-focused and decentralized, positioning itself against centralized sites like OnlyFans. It says payments use digital currency to avoid bank statements, chats run on the XMTP encrypted protocol, and profiles and followers are stored on Lens Protocol so creators can take them elsewhere. The platform charges a 5% fee to cover infrastructure costs, compared with the 20% or more the article says other platforms take, and it plans to be governed by a community DAO, with major changes decided by member votes after a launch it calls "Day X." ## 3. @koeppelmann: first time buy physical goods w/ Circles - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/koeppelmann-first-time-buy-physical-goods-w-Circles?index=0x69a151133501de744e3fea56d8e619c4a4fffb707bb3d284a87e597ca96826986249da45 - Source: https://firefly.social/post/x/2027294285536563632 - Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 5 comments ## 4. @iamtherealyakuza: TLDR Lens Roadmap - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/iamtherealyakuza-TLDR-Lens-Roadmap?index=0x699ee062b357745fd61cbf0d7e4e2aa1479e259bf880c264232dfad07c4e47e60a953b4f - Source: https://orb.club/p/1t7q39ck4pb0v29r38h?sharedBy=mishaderidder - Submitted by misha, 4 upvotes, 1 comment Lens's roadmap, summarized from a post by @0xmrvinyl and Mask Network and Lens meeting notes dated 21/02/2026, prioritizes fixing core usability over protocol changes, with about 99.9% of ownership and operations transitioned. Within 6 to 9 months, the plan is to extend login sessions beyond 7 days, remove storage bottlenecks for large media, and use existing wallets such as Rainbow and OKX as login. No smart contract migrations are planned, and the Lens chain remains a Validium. Monetization is being reworked away from meme coins toward real-world coupon incentives, citing a Haidilao campaign of about 100,000 SGD. ## 5. Join, or Die - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Join-or-Die?index=0x69a42d902245e6e72a5408b99a91fc3178752440a8bc85585c3a5474cbb1a61cf5a258b1 - Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Join,_or_Die - Submitted by tim, 4 upvotes, 2 comments Benjamin Franklin's 1754 woodcut "Join, or Die," first published in The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754, shows a snake cut into eight segments labeled with colony initials to argue for colonial unity during the French and Indian War. The cartoon accompanied Franklin's editorial on the "disunited state" of the colonies and supported his proposed Albany Plan. During the Stamp Act Congress of 1765–1766, American colonists reused the image to urge resistance to British laws, and Paul Revere altered it for the masthead of the Massachusetts Spy on July 7, 1774. The article notes that the image has been widely redrawn since, including by Craig Ferguson's 2009 tattoo and a planned 46-foot statue in Philadelphia. ## 6. Russia investigates Telegram founder Durov in a bid to subjugate messaging app - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Russia-investigates-Telegram-founder-Durov-in-a-bid-to-subjugate-messaging-app?index=0x699df1ae48e82a3e910129003409c95c87543b7fa933e366b451ecd3a3ab93746c5bcb4a - Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/russia-investigating-telegram-founder-durov-part-criminal-case-rossiyskaya-2026-02-24 - Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 2 comments ## 7. @nickysap: X now strictly prohibits all crypto promotions - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/nickysap-X-now-strictly-prohibits-all-crypto-promotions?index=0x69a4c4d26d26a63797c2924b2ad0772f3871fdf32f6fe58e132d3805ea9f507b1f6975c0 - Source: https://farcaster.xyz/nickysap/0xa93fa963 - Submitted by @timdaub.eth, 3 upvotes, 1 comment ## 8. Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Statement-from-Dario-Amodei-on-our-discussions-with-the-Department-of-War?index=0x69a0e39cac8a42f7efe2c8ac9ba27b7ba59048f264763fe757b5b34715a2a06e95cbbd36 - Source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 3 comments Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says the company will not remove two safeguards from its contracts with the Department of War, even under threats to cut it off or label it a supply chain risk. The two safeguards bar using Anthropic's AI for mass domestic surveillance and for fully autonomous weapons, which the statement says frontier AI systems are not yet reliable enough to power. Amodei writes that Anthropic was the first frontier AI company to deploy models on US government classified networks and that it gave up several hundred million dollars in revenue by cutting off firms linked to the Chinese Communist Party. He adds that Anthropic would help the Department transition to another provider if it chooses to offboard the company. ## 9. Securely share passwords, credit cards, and API keys with any AI agents - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Securely-share-passwords-credit-cards-and-API-keys-with-any-AI-agents?index=0x69a49439509cb4b0fb169ca8a52dca486e0db67c0ce51bc298aa266f74b77114b0645e50 - Source: https://github.com/Aura-Industry/auramaxx - Submitted by misha, 3 upvotes, 0 comments AuraOS is an open-source suite that bundles tools for AI agents, including secrets, credentials, approvals, and apps built on them. Its available app, AuraWallet, is an open-source secret manager that lets users securely share passwords, API keys, and cards with AI agents, with human-approval flows and an MCP server. Four other apps, AuraLauncher, AuraRegistry, AuraChess, and AuraPM, are listed as coming soon. The repository was previously home to the AuraJS game engine, which is now deprecated in favor of AuraOS and archived at Aura-Industry/aurajs. ## 10. What we want and don't want from the dark forest era - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/What-we-want-and-dont-want-from-the-dark-forest-era?index=0x699f213a5396736a44d6dd2cda2a2ba6e31455740eae9d5883c3419a32d40b17ad3a32eb - Source: https://blog.metalabel.com/what-we-want-and-dont-want-from-the-dark-forest-era - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 1 comment Josh and a co-host close a season on private online communities, which they call dark forests, by listing five things they want from this "Dark Forest Era" and five they don't. Among the wants are cooperation over competition, a return of editorial vision, and organizational structures light enough that groups can act without first becoming a "real" company. The unwanted outcomes include a "million tiny fortresses," high-priced country clubs, and network states replacing public institutions, and the hosts call for data portability and decentralized identifiers as safeguards against spaces becoming extractive. ## 11. Swirls of Fortune | The Art of Clowns - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Swirls-of-Fortune-or-The-Art-of-Clowns?index=0x699f7b92fc04b452d3b3661c2672229344474ae2500b5420b272efcbeefa343450039cc5 - Source: https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/swirls-of-fortune-the-art-of-clowns-lene-vollhardt-interview-the-sphere - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 1 comment ## 12. This Essay Shouldn't Go Viral - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/This-Essay-Shouldnt-Go-Viral?index=0x69a47d47f827487abd50a8d390087225da59feb09c9dfe5cfb95a8600f6ed1dcd15ebbcb - Source: https://sceneswithsimon.com/p/this-essay-shouldnt-go-viral - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 1 comment Culture's middle has eroded as popularity concentrates at the top, and the web should be tempered as the center of our information ecology to restore resilience and dynamism. Supporting data cites music charts where top songs linger longer while the bottom quarter rotates faster, and film box office share held by the top ten movies rising from about 25% in the early 2000s to 45% in 2025. Drawing on antimemes as described in qntm's story and Nadia's book, it argues that group chats are antimemetic publicly but memetic privately. ## 13. Mentioning crypto on AI agent OpenClaw's Discord will get you banned - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Mentioning-crypto-on-AI-agent-OpenClaws-Discord-will-get-you-banned?index=0x699cd6496ffe222982990d1a43393097d04af5843e34b0404472c9dbe5f4930a208b6097 - Source: https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/02/22/mentioning-bitcoin-or-crypto-on-ai-agent-openclaw-s-discord-will-get-you-banned - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 0 comments OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger has banned any mention of crypto, including bitcoin, from the project's Discord server after a January episode in which scammers hijacked the project's accounts during a rebrand. Scammers seized the old GitHub and X handles and promoted a fake $CLAWD token on Solana that hit a $16 million market capitalization before crashing over 90% when Steinberger publicly denied involvement. A user was blocked immediately for mentioning bitcoin in an unrelated multi-agent benchmark context, and Steinberger said the rule is listed among the server rules users accept on entry. Steinberger has since joined OpenAI, and OpenClaw has moved to an independent open-source foundation. ## 14. @df: Merkle team treated third party devs with contempt during frames process - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/df-Merkle-team-treated-third-party-devs-with-contempt-during-frames-process?index=0x699dbd6a6a1986f92f6b3162b7bf0605e068bc8512876327b40fb8b1592838f1b2b9c902 - Source: https://farcaster.xyz/df/0x279d52d8 - Submitted by @timdaub.eth, 2 upvotes, 0 comments A commenter says the Merkle team treated third-party developers with contempt during the frames process, based on their own experience. They report that the team gave no definitive or consistent answer about integrating for months. The clearest indirect answer came when Varun sent the "frames early draft" for feedback about 48 hours before launch, following the protocol process via an FIP. The commenter says they are not claiming anyone said they would integrate. ## 15. Google, Apple start testing encrypted RCS on Android and iOS 26.4 - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Google-Apple-start-testing-encrypted-RCS-on-Android-and-iOS-264?index=0x699eb19df3ccd49f544cffe3482c13d670f570657f808b08eba161ae0e16864cb571de7b - Source: https://9to5google.com/2026/02/23/google-messages-encrypted-rcs-iphone - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 1 comment ## 16. Tether invests $200M in Whop at $1.6B valuation - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Tether-invests-dollar200M-in-Whop-at-dollar16B-valuation?index=0x699f5f8dc20b9e91a399cc17212d7b62776ea7e8b144c1e0869bbb296661c9749b05345a - Source: https://x.com/cultured/status/2026677118701289897?s=46 - Submitted by ayomide.eth, 2 upvotes, 1 comment Tether, described in the post as the largest stablecoin company in the world, is making a $200M strategic investment in Whop, valuing the company at $1.6B. Whop's announcement says the partnership will combine Tether's global scale and wallet technology with Whop's community of next-generation entrepreneurs. The post says the two companies will work to bring sustainable income to billions of people and scale infrastructure for new business models. Whop was launched by co-founders who met as teenagers selling software on the internet, initially to customers in Facebook and Discord forums. ## 17. @drakefjustin: Introducing strawmap, a strawman roadmap by EF Protocol. - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/drakefjustin-Introducing-strawmap-a-strawman-roadmap-by-EF-Protocol?index=0x699f8a1f02e24691a3cc58db3cc1aac0b9a5b9b0181ec0f448af91ed527aac23e3a90d9e - Source: https://firefly.social/post/x/2026755969540108659 - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 1 comment The Ethereum Foundation's EF Protocol team has introduced strawmap, a strawman roadmap for Ethereum L1 protocol upgrades, intended as an accelerationist coordination tool rather than a prediction. It places proposals on a single visual timeline, outlining seven forks by 2029 at a rough cadence of one fork every six months, though the text says these timelines should be treated with healthy skepticism. Five north stars are listed: fast L1, gigagas L1, teragas L2, post quantum L1, and private L1. The document is maintained by the EF Architecture team, and updates are expected at least quarterly. ## 18. @dappcon: Speaker applications are OPEN - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/dappcon-Speaker-applications-are-OPEN?index=0x69a0062bd9c4b1b836499a9f216e16551acaccc95786aa90b2f7c3389eb09aa0fb71c4f2 - Source: https://firefly.social/post/x/2026764217702039614 - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 1 comment ## 19. Aave is Eating Itself - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Aave-is-Eating-Itself?index=0x69a16c1a1f0dc8ede393565c5f8613da082246a422cbd2c188deec4b6784de562eab8b5d - Source: https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi-daily/aave-is-eating-itself - Submitted by rvolz.eth, 2 upvotes, 0 comments ## 20. On This Day 5 years ago, Hic et Nunc launched - Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/On-This-Day-5-years-ago-Hic-et-Nunc-launched?index=0x69a48609f168da067269afa60ed3df71c96b65e402d8107f55f06a36b21a8fdfc095a70d - Source: https://firefly.social/post/x/2028032554478281033 - Submitted by misha, 2 upvotes, 1 comment