Daily digests, topic reading and writing about Micro.
A security researcher named Wayne recently discovered that eight private keys held by eMudhra, an Indian certificate authority, were so poorly generated that they were trivial to crack. One key’s entropy was equivalent to the digit “4”. Browsers and operating systems are now rus…
Recent allegations involving Coinbase have surfaced a problem that many in the crypto space have quietly recognised but few have resolved: companies holding bitcoin on their balance sheets cannot easily demonstrate who controls the money, who approves its movement, or whether it…
The United Kingdom has announced it will deploy Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to fly defensive missions over Saudi Arabian cities and critical infrastructure, responding to a surge in missile and drone attacks from Yemen’s Houthi movement. The Ministry of Defence is clear…
The market’s confidence in the AI buildout is being stress-tested by rising energy costs and geopolitical risk. The 30% plunge of South Korean data centre firm Elice on its debut, as Brent crude surged past $111, signals a recalibration: investors are questioning whether the re…
French lawmakers this week narrowly approved a measure that will subject gains from swapping cryptocurrency into stablecoins to the country’s 31.4% capital gains levy, starting January 2027. Amendment I-3898 removes the tax deferral that previously applied to trades involving Mi…
The 30% plunge of South Korean data centre company Elice on its trading debut this week is more than a single disappointing IPO — it’s a signal that the market is beginning to question the valuations attached to the AI buildout. Elice raised $151 million and still saw its stock…
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs attracted $526.6 million on Monday — the largest daily net inflow in nearly a month — but the headline masks an unusual pattern. Every dollar of that inflow came from one product: BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which alone brought in $665.2 mi…
Copper has quietly outpaced gold in 2026, rising 15.8% so far this year as investors point to demand from AI infrastructure, grid modernisation, and national security stockpiling. The metal often called Dr Copper for its ability to forecast economic activity is signalling someth…
Andy Burnham has proposed new rules that would give drivers five minutes to decide whether to park and ten minutes to leave after their session ends before a private parking fine can be issued. The change, outlined in a new code of practice for Greater Manchester, targets a syst…
Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, has rarely been far from controversy, but this week’s response to a US Senate investigation offers a more nuanced picture than the headlines might suggest. Senator Richard Blumenthal’s probe accused Tether of enabling financial acti…
Thames Water has become the litmus test for Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s promise to bring “the essentials of life” under public control. This week, Burnham instructed officials to rip up existing plans and present more radical options for the debt-laden utility, including a sta…
The sentencing of Kosovo’s former president to 25 years for war crimes is a rare moment when the machinery of international justice actually reaches those who once held power. The case, heard at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, involved charges of murder, persecution…
The cost of the war on Iran is now visible not only in battlefields but in boardrooms and on high streets. UK-listed companies issued 65 profit warnings in the three months to September — the highest in two years — as energy costs and supply-chain disruption ripple through manuf…
UK-listed companies issued 65 profit warnings in the three months to September — the highest number in two years, according to a consultancy tracking the data. The firm directly attributed the jump to the escalating Iran war, which has driven up energy costs, disrupted supply ch…
JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank, is bringing its deposit token JPM Coin to the Ethereum network, extending the token beyond Coinbase’s Base layer-2 where it launched last year. The move, first reported by Bloomberg, lets institutional clients use a tokenised representation o…
The team behind Zakura, a newer version of the Zcash software, has proposed giving each ZEC swap made through NEAR Intents its own private viewing key. The goal is to ensure that a refund address left on NEAR’s public chain cannot expose a user’s wider payment history, even to a…
The worst unrest France has seen in years has left streets charred and thousands arrested, prompting President Macron to vow support for businesses hit by violence. The immediate trigger was an attempt to rein in government spending, but the anger runs much deeper, fed by a cost…
A letter signed by 150 scientists, MPs, and activists has urged Andy Burnham to launch a government inquiry into the unequal health impacts of air pollution, particularly on lower-income and minority-ethnic communities. The request highlights a stark and well-documented reality:…
Two stories this week capture a shift that deserves more attention than it’s getting. Deutsche Bank announced plans to launch a crypto custody service in Germany within weeks, with an expansion into Asian financial centres targeted for 2027. Separately, Latvia’s parliament passe…
British steelmakers now pay almost £30 a megawatt hour more for electricity than their French competitors — the worst gap in three years, according to analysis by the lobby group UK Steel. The immediate driver is a surge in global gas prices linked to the US-Israeli war on Iran,…