ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, cryptographic company Zama, focused on fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technology, has completed a $57 million Series B funding round, co-led by Blockchange Ventures and Pantera Capital.This round of financing brings Zama's total funding to over $150 million, with a valuation exceeding $1 billion, making it the first "unicorn" in the field of fully homomorphic encryption. Fully homomorphic encryption technology allows for privacy to be maintained during data usage, which is particularly important for sensitive applications in blockchain and artificial intelligence.The Zama protocol allows developers to build encrypted decentralized applications (dapps) without deep expertise in cryptography. The company's public testnet is now open for use, and the funding will be used for the mainnet launch, ecosystem adoption expansion, and research work. Use cases include confidential stablecoin issuance, asset tokenization, private identity verification, and network nation governance.Zama's Series A funding was led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with a total amount of $73 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, crypto advocacy groups such as the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, DeFi Education Fund, and the Bitcoin Policy Institute are calling for the dismissal of the case against the Bitcoin mixing service Samourai.These groups believe that Samourai Wallet merely helps people conduct financial transactions online without violating U.S. law. Nevertheless, a federal judge this week refused to accept these groups' amicus briefs. Previously, the U.S. government shut down Samourai Wallet and arrested its developers, accusing the application of being an "unlicensed money transmitting business" used by criminals.

ChainCatcher message, the Slow Mist security team published a disclosure revealing a critical vulnerability (GHSA-vjh7-7g9h-fjfh) found in the widely used elliptic cryptography library.Attackers can extract private keys with just one signature by constructing specific inputs, which may lead to the theft of digital assets or identity credentials. This vulnerability could affect blockchain applications and digital identity systems that rely on this cryptography library.

ChainCatcher news, the research organization ZKnox, supported by the Ethereum Foundation, has been officially established to enhance the security and efficiency of Ethereum. ZKnox focuses on post-quantum cryptography and has optimized the implementation of Number Theoretic Transform (NTT) to improve the computational efficiency of post-quantum signature verification.

ChainCatcher news, according to the "National Data Infrastructure Construction Guidelines" released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Data Bureau, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the document clearly proposes to use blockchain technology, encryption technology, and smart contracts to build a credible data circulation system. The guidelines encourage industries and localities to explore blockchain networks and privacy-preserving computing platforms, enhance trust and security in the data circulation process, promote the construction of a nationwide integrated distributed data directory and digital identity system, and strengthen the traceability and trustworthiness of data asset certificates.The planning goal is to achieve a scalable credible data circulation pattern covering large and medium-sized cities in the coming years.

ChainCatcher news, according to the "National Data Infrastructure Construction Guidelines" released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Data Bureau, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the document clearly proposes to utilize blockchain technology, encryption technology, and smart contracts to build a trustworthy data circulation system. The guidelines encourage industries and localities to explore blockchain networks and privacy-preserving computing platforms, enhance trust and security in the data circulation process, promote the construction of a national integrated distributed data directory and digital identity system, and strengthen the traceability and trustworthiness of data asset certificates. The planning goal is to achieve a scalable trustworthy data circulation pattern covering large and medium-sized cities in the coming years.

ChainCatcher message, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated on the X platform in response to Ethereum Foundation researcher Devansh Mehta regarding "the Ethereum Foundation should start supporting non-cryptocurrency activities, not just events where people in the circle praise each other": "In my view, mainstream cryptography, cybersecurity, and non-blockchain decentralization being seen as 'non-cryptocurrency related' is a failure in itself (I believe this notion mainly comes from the cryptocurrency side), and it is worth taking measures to address this issue."

ChainCatcher news, StarkWare announced that computer science professor Moni Naor has joined its scientific committee as a chief researcher. At StarkWare, he will primarily focus on topics such as Bitcoin cryptography and the decentralization of Starknet.StarkWare stated that Moni has made pioneering contributions to computer science, including groundbreaking research on public key systems resistant to chosen ciphertext attacks, non-malleable cryptography, visual cryptography, and innovative methods for verifying human users (leading to the concept of CAPTCHAs). The first mention of proof of work was proposed by him together with Cynthia Dwork.

ChainCatcher news, the cryptography company Zama has released the latest version of its research progress, including TFHE-rs (v0.8), Concrete (v2.8), and Concrete ML (v1.7). The TFHE-rs v0.8 released by Zama features encrypted arrays and improved multi-GPU support.The released Concrete v2.8 introduces interoperability with TFHE-rs and automatic module tracking capabilities. Concrete ML v1.7 includes transformer model fine-tuning and DNA applications.In November, Zama will release fhEVM v0.6, with the core highlight being the new fhEVM coprocessor, allowing developers to deploy confidential smart contracts directly on Ethereum.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, Polygon Labs and Fabric Cryptography have launched custom ZK chips to accelerate the development of AggLayer.It is reported that Polygon Labs is currently collaborating with the crypto hardware manufacturer Fabric Cryptography to introduce its Verifiable Processing Unit (VPU) into the AggLayer ecosystem. AggLayer is an interoperability layer currently being developed by Polygon Labs and other core contributors, aimed at facilitating unified liquidity and security across the entire chain network.