Bernstein: Ethereum as a Decentralized Computer, 'Admirable'

Advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Muheber stated that if Iran’s proposed conditions are not met, the Supreme Leader has clearly made a strategic decision to respond by escalating conflicts. Muheber added that the current situation has proven the United States’ inability to protect its allies in the Persian Gulf. The most sustainable path to establishing a new regional order lies in promoting the implementation of the "Hormuz Economic Security Mechanism" to reduce reliance on U.S. military guarantees. (Xinhua News Agency)

Ethereum Foundation core researcher Justin Drake announced in a post that Ethereum Layer 1 (L1) will abandon Poseidon, the SNARK-friendly hash function that has been dominant since 2019, in favor of traditional hash functions such as SHA2 or BLAKE2s. This reversal stems from a breakthrough in SNARK design, centered on "hash-friendly SNARKs" rather than the prior approach of "SNARK-friendly hashes". By natively aligning Boolean operations in traditional hashes with binary fields, proof performance for traditional hash calls in SNARKs has reached 1 million per second, with overhead of just around 100x—a stark contrast to the previously extremely expensive operations in large prime fields. Drake dubbed this "science-fiction-level cryptography" and named contributors to key research breakthroughs including Binius and Flock. The shift will push Ethereum’s hash-based cryptography to the peak of minimal assumptions, while drastically accelerating deployment: there is no need to wait for years of cryptanalysis maturity for Poseidon. The Ethereum Foundation’s (EF) post-quantum team is advancing rapidly, with a roadmap targeting a production-grade leanVM in 2027, and deployment of the consensus, execution, and data layers in 2028. Drake also noted that AI’s enhanced cryptanalysis capabilities have recently dealt successive setbacks to lattice-based schemes (HAWK) and isogeny-based schemes (SQIsign), while hash-based schemes are emerging as the leading candidates for post-quantum signatures in blockchains. The trend of open-source automated research is also accelerating; SNARK.fast has achieved 1.8 million BLAKE3 proofs per second.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. is preparing to deploy the aircraft carrier USS Washington to the Middle East to replace the USS Lincoln under a previously scheduled rotation plan. The USS Lincoln has been on a lengthy deployment with very few port calls, sparking concerns among U.S. lawmakers about living conditions aboard the vessel. The USS Lincoln began its scheduled deployment last November and was redeployed to the Middle East in January this year ahead of the launch of military operations against Iran. The carrier and its embarked aircraft played a key role in the U.S. military's Operation Epic Wrath airstrikes, and later took part in the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. U.S. lawmakers stated that the intense operational tempo and stress from the prolonged deployment have overwhelmed the crew, and they are pressing the Pentagon to provide more information about living conditions and mental health issues aboard the ship. U.S. media outlet MS Now reported earlier this month that the USS Lincoln's crew has been facing harsh conditions including food shortages and depleted supplies of items like toothpaste and soap. Lawmakers expressed concern over reports that the crew is exhausted and suffering from deteriorating mental health due to the lack of port calls for rest and recuperation.

A senior executive of SanDisk (SNDK.O) stated that Meta Platforms (META.O) will join the relevant group to co-develop the open standard for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF).

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: The United States can maintain the blockade against Iran for as long as needed.

AMD plans to raise up to $5 billion through bond issuance, and has filed a preliminary prospectus supplement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today for the offering of multi-series senior bonds. The bonds will constitute AMD’s senior unsecured debt and will not be guaranteed by any of its subsidiaries. The underwriters include Barclays, BofA Securities, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Franklin Brothers Securities.