---

Upcoming events

(new/changes in bold)

• Apr 10, zkSummit (Athens) conference
• Apr 12-14, ETHDam hackathon
• Apr 24, Privacy Reunion 2 (Barcelona) conference
• May 24-26, ETHBerlin hackathon
• May 30, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Prague) conference
• Jun 7-9, MoneroKon (Prague) conference & hackathon
• Jun 19-26, Web3Privacy Now Hackathon (Bled)
• Oct 4-6, Hackers Congress Paralelní Polis (HCPP) (Prague) conference
• Oct 4-6, ETHRome hackathon
• Oct, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Brno) conference
• Oct, ETHBrno privacy hackathon

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Upcoming events

(new/changes in bold)

• Apr 10, zkSummit (Athens) conference
• Apr 12-14, ETHDam hackathon
• Apr 24, Privacy Reunion 2 (Barcelona) conference
• May 24-26, ETHBerlin hackathon
• May 30, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Prague) conference
• Jun 7-9, MoneroKon (Prague) conference & hackathon
• Jun 19-26, Web3Privacy Now Hackathon (Bled)
• Oct 4-6, Hackers Congress Paralelní Polis (HCPP) (Prague) conference
• Oct 4-6, ETHRome hackathon
• Oct, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Brno) conference
• Oct, ETHBrno hackathon

Research

• ETH Research: Collusion-Resistant Impartial Selection Protocol (CRISP)

Partnership

• Coindesk: Shiba Inu partnered with ZAMA

Ecosystem

• Zcash Forum: ECC update, Roadmap
• W3PN: 24 new projects in W3PN privacy-enhancing services DB
• PSE: Acceleration Program Round 2 has been launched

Releases

• Wasabi Wallet: Juggernaut Release 2.0.6
• MACI v1.2.0
• Inco released Gentry Testnet
• 𝐨𝐩𝐩/𝐚𝐢 - Optimistic Privacy-Preserving AI on blockchain by ORA

Fundraising

• Inco network closed $4.5 round
• Humanity Protocol Announced Strategic Funding

Governments

• Washington Post: push notifications as a surveillance technique

Podcasts

• EFF: open Source Beats Authoritarianism with Audrey Tang
• Logos press engine: creating Politically Autonomous Communities with Patri Friedman
• Blockchain Recorded: on-chain ZK Privacy with Kieran (Kai) Mesquita
• What Bitcoin did: scaling Bitcoin Privately x John Light
• Moneto Talk: Privacy in Focus at ETH Denver w/ Luke Parker, SirJamz & Seth Estrada

Event highlights

ETHDenver

• Why Tornado Cash Developers Need Your Support by @ameensol x MolochDAO
• ZK Tech and Privacy by @matthew_d_green
• The Case for Monolithic Rollups by @jonwu_ x ex-@aztecnetwork
• The Hard Kind of Censorship Resistance by @nullchinchilla x @melproject_org

Circuit Breaker

• ZK-centric hackathon winners has been announced

Other

• Elusiv is sunsetting
• Optimism: Private, on-chain, implementation for RetroPGF proposal
• One-dimensional humans: the curse of single sign-in apps by ML_sudo
• Monero-related Twitter list has been compiled by Schmidt
• Cointelegraph: Privacy-focused Aleo says KYC leak is copy and paste error

---

Upcoming events

(new/changes in bold)

• Apr 10, zkSummit (Athens) conference
• Apr 12-14, ETHDam hackathon
• May 24-26, ETHBerlin hackathon
• May 30, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Prague) conference
• Jun 7-9, MoneroKon (Prague) conference & hackathon
• Jun 19-26, Web3Privacy Now Hackathon (Bled)
• Oct 4-6, Hackers Congress Paralelní Polis (HCPP) (Prague) conference
• Oct 4-6, ETHRome hackathon
• Oct, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Brno) conference
• Oct, ETHBrno hackathon

Research

• Memetic warfare: notes from the W3PN Summit meme talk by @lunar_mining
• The State of the Culture (2024): a non pretty glimpse into post-entertainment society
• EFF: Unregulated, Exploitative, and on the Rise report on electronic monitoring from Vera Institute
• WTF is Aztec? introduction article
• Hackernoon: The Role of Asset-Agnostic Privacy
• Wired: experience with Signal usernames
• The Big Brother Watch: thread on X comparing CBDCs around the world
• Google: AI privacy risks from sharing with chatbots

Ecosystem

• Fluidkey launched alpha version on Optimism
• Aleo users alarmed by leaked KYC documents
• Railgun surpasses $20m TVL (src)
• Privacy x Web3 job board by @nicksvyaznoy and @niclaz (updated)

Grants

• Ethereum Foundation: The first ZK Grants Round is now open ($900k) (src)
• Zcash: grant for Maya Protocol approved ($110k) (src)

Releases

• NymVPN v0.0.4: initial release

Podcasts

• Privacy tools in the real world (LunarDAO)
• Protecting health data & patient privacy (Verida Network x Partisia Blockchain)
• Alternatives to CEXs (Firo)
• Privacy + blockchain: how important is it? (QuickSwap)

Governments

• Russia arrested a woman for a $51 donation to Ukraine charity, facing up to 20 years in prison
• The real story of the SEC's suit from Kraken CEO @DavidLRipley
• ‘Privacy and Security’ Should Be the Core of National Digital ID
• Australian experts discusses privacy and data collection by smart home devices
• Canadian Privacy Commissioner highlights concerns on RCMP's web surveillance with private tech

Other

• Bitcoin Magazine: Adam Back's complete emails with Satoshi Nakamato
• Satoshi Nakamoto's earliest collaborator Martii 'Sirius' Malmi released their entire email history

---

Upcoming events

(new/changes in bold)

• Apr 10, zkSummit (Athens) conference
• Apr 12-14, ETHDam hackathon
• May 24-26, ETHBerlin hackathon
• May 30, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Prague) conference
• Jun 7-9, MoneroKon (Prague) conference & hackathon
• Jun 19-26, Web3Privacy Now Hackathon (Bled)
• Oct 4-6, Hackers Congress Paralelní Polis (HCPP) (Prague) conference
• Oct 4-6, ETHRome hackathon
• Oct, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Brno) conference
• Oct, ETHBrno hackathon

Concepts

• Eppie: encrypted p2p email as better replacement for Skiff (src)
• koan: private cross-chain swaps by Zcash (src)

Governments

• European Court of Human Rights unequivocally protects encryption in Telegram (src)
• Digital euro will have a high level of privacy (src)
• EFF: The authors of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) unveiled an amended version this week, but it’s still an unconstitutional censorship bill (src)

Ecosystem

• Eternal Safe: decentralized fork of Safe{Wallet} without tracking (src)
• Electronic Coin & Co drops Zcash ecosystem update (src)
• DarkFi started hiring devs (src)

Releases

• Noir v0.24.0 (pre-release)
• Skiff Mail will now run forwarding up through 2025 (src)
• Privacy wallets W3PN database PR by niclaz (src)
• Holepunch launch Pears - a combined Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Runtime, Development & Deployment tool (src)
• Anon Aadhaar v1.0.0 uodate (src)
• Lit V0, Habanero Mainnet Beta: Decentralized Key Management (src)
• Rarimo launched Freedom tool for digital voting (src)

Partnerships

• Spot on enterprise data privacy: QuickNode and Matter Labs Partner to scale with zkSync Hyperchains (src)

Grants

• Zama Grant Program has been launched (src)

Research

• Technical exploration of Erasure Coding within the Swarm network, focusing on ensuring data integrity and resilience -- @GasperX93
• Healthcare data privacy: Researchers pair medical devices with blockchain to defend against cyberattacks (scs)
• OCash: Fully Anonymous Payments between Blockchain Light Clients (src)
• Pay2Chain bridge, named Alba, facilitates the efficient, secure, and trustless execution of conditional payments or smart contracts on a target blockchain based on off-chain events (src)
• Sigma Protocol(s) by Patrickd (src)
• Privacytests has released a new category in its evaluations: 'DNS Privacy Tests' (src)

Events

• W3PN Call for proposals is here (src)
• ETHBerlin will be sponsorless (src)
• Privacy Reunion II call for proposal (src)

Podcasts

• Ben Wizner: Speech, Privacy, and Technology | Logos Podcast with Jarrad Hope (src)
• /zk Farcaster x PSE projects forthcoming podcast (21.02) (src)
• The Blockchain Socialist: Accelerationism is back and tech elites are making it cringier than it already was (src
• War on privacy in Web3? With Zach Williamson, Co-founder & CEO at Aztec Protocol (src)

---

Upcoming events

• Feb 20, Binance delisting Monero
• Apr 10, zkSummit (Athens) conference
• Apr 12-14, ETHDam hackathon
• May 24-26, ETHBerlin hackathon
• May 30, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Prague) conference
• Jun 7-9, MoneroKon (Prague) conference & hackathon
• Jun 19-26, Web3Privacy Now Hackathon (Bled)
• Oct 4-6, Hackers Congress Paralelní Polis (HCPP) (Prague) conference
• Oct, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Brno) conference
• Oct, ETHBrno hackathon

Welcome to the historical debut - the first edition (#1) of Week In The Privacy News.

Privacy awareness starts in 1,2,3

Have you ever tried to follow privacy news? Spending hours & hours every week & still lacking a clear picture of the latest updates.

The Web3Privacy Now community solves this issue

Every week - 1 curated round-up of the most important news related to privacy in the Web3. Freedom, security and decentralisation topics as a bonus.

Production team: the Web3Privacy Now community members. We are passionate about privacy and through many activities such as research, education or IRL events we try to connect people with the same interests or spread these ideas to the wider public.

Join us: all our activities are open-source and community-based, so you can freely contribute with your news:

• send us a tip in our News channel on Matrix
• add the news item directly to the repository on GitHub
• or share them with us on X

Learn more about the Week in the Privacy News in our Documentation.

-- Tree

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Feb 5 - Feb 11, 2024

Research

• Week in the Privacy News: new weekly summary of the most important news from ecosystem
• Pavol Lupták: Brave is not a true privacy-oriented browser
• Zac Williamson: thread about visions of a dystopian future when we fail
• Wired: experience with Passkeys

Ecosystem

• Logos, Nomos, Waku, Codex, Status and others now federated under the Institute of Free Technology
• Binance Will Delist XMR on 2024-02-20 (src)
• Binance delisting sparks privacy concerns: Financial Times article on Monero delisting
• Brave Nightly support Zcash in their integrated wallet (only unshielded transactions for now)
• WalletConnect launches Web3Modal Analytics, showing that they doesn't mind tracking own users
• Session team announced upcoming upgrade from Oxen Network to Session Network
• Skiff was acquired by Notion and will wind down its services in 6 months (src)

Releases

• Brume Wallet v0.5: UI enhancements, faster startup, cleaner onboarding

Podcasts

• War on privacy in Web3?: with Zach Williamson, CEO at Aztec Protocol
• Function of privacy in DeFi: @robbie_rollup and Lou Waroo from Houdini Swap, crosschain DEX and liquidity agreggator
• Drama is the Prime Indicator of Decentralisation: with Dr. Nick Almond from Factory DAO (src)

Community

• DAO Privacy: X space with Gnosis Guild, Safe, Shutter Network, ShapeShift & Fractal (src)

Other

• Defunkt: The co-founder and former CEO of GitHub has been banned from GitHub (without explanation) (src)
• Citrea: Bitcoin's first ZK Rollup (src)
• Liberation Travel Hacks 02/2024 from Liberation Travel (subscribe)
• Canada moves to ban Flipper Zero over car hacking fears (src)

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Upcoming events

• Feb 20, Binance delisting Monero
• Apr 10, zkSummit (Athens) conference
• Apr 12-14, ETHDam hackathon
• May 24-26, ETHBerlin hackathon
• May 30, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Prague) conference
• Jun 7-9, MoneroKon (Prague) conference & hackathon
• Jun 19-26, Web3Privacy Now Hackathon (Bled)
• Oct 4-6, Hackers Congress Paralelní Polis (HCPP) (Prague) conference
• Oct, Web3Privacy Now Summit (Brno) conference
• Oct, ETHBrno hackathon

Do you know of any other major Web3 privacy-related event that should be included in this list? Let us know!

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Sign up to receive this newsletter weekly.

Research

• Privacy Spreadsheet comparing different messengers on their privacy properties (src)
• Passkeys wallet on the EVM by @slovaye (src)

Ecosystem

• Nym x Zcash grant
• Horswap: Uniswap frontend without censorship or interface fees, by @MicahZoltu (src)
• IllumineX (confidental EVM DEX) launched Mainnet on Oasis Sapphire network (src)

Government

• NSA Admits Secretly Buying Your Internet Browsing Data without Warrants

Breaches

• Mother of all breaches (MOAB) reveals 26 billion records

Events

• MoneroKon 2024 started selling tickets (src)
• ETHBerlin4 Hacker application & volunteer application open (src)

Videos

• The Great Privacy Awakening by @JackRhysider (src)
• Breaking Bitlocker - Bypassing the Windows Disk Encryption (src)