WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en-US 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 This is a weekly summary of interesting news that is relevant for my lectures at the Eastern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:16.000 My name is Thomas Bocek and today we will discuss five topics. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:27.000 The first topic is about the 8 fallacies of distributed systems and I mentioned those in my distributed systems lecture. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:35.000 The network is reliable and this brings me to the first story. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:44.000 Cloudflare reported a record-breaking distributed denial-of-service attack in September 2025. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:54.000 The attack peaked over 22 terabits per second and over 10 billion packets per second, lasting only 40 seconds. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:01.000 It targeted a single IP address of a European network infrastructure company. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:11.000 The attack was traced to over 404'000 unique source IPs across more than 14 different autonomous systems worldwide 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:16.000 and Cloudflare confirmed the source IPs were not spoofed. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:27.000 The attack has been linked to the Aisuru botnet, which comprises IoT devices like routers through known zero-day vulnerabilities. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:43.000 Aisuru is a botnet first identified in August 2024, offering DDoS attacks typically in the range from 1 to 3 terabits per second for hire. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:54.000 This was a UDP carpet bomb attack that targeted an average of 31'000 destination ports per second on a single IP address. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:03.000 The UDP carpet bomb attack floods a target by sending massive amounts of UDP packets to many different ports on a single IP address 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:08.000 simultaneously to overwhelm the target's network resources. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:15.000 The attack was twice the size of the previous record and was blocked by Cloudflare. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:21.000 Luckily, Cloudflare could handle it, but keep in mind that the network is not reliable, 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:29.000 distributed denial-of-service can be successful and cut off services from the Internet. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:43.000 The next article is also about network reliability, especially if you live in a country where extremists such as the Taliban 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:49.000 use religion as a pretext to restrict access and limit basic freedoms. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:03:04.000 Afghanistan experienced a total Internet blackout starting September 29, after the Taliban government disconnected multiple networks and telecommunications services. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:17.000 The shutdown affected the entire nation of 43 million people, with Internet watchdog NetBlocks confirming that telephone and Internet services were impacted. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:27.000 The Taliban's supreme leader ordered a blackout to prevent what they call "immoral activities", though officials did not clarify what this meant. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:35.000 They stated an alternative system would be established for essential needs, but provided no details. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:45.000 The disruption actually began on September 16, with the full nationwide blackout imposed on September 29 without prior notice. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:53.000 The shutdown severely affected news organizations, with international agencies unable to contact their bureaus in Kabul. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:02.000 Afghans abroad lost all contact with family members inside the country, and several incoming flights to Kabul were cancelled. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:11.000 The blackout appears to be the most extensive coordinated telecommunications shutdown since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Since the Taliban banned girls from attending schools beyond grade 6, many had relied on online classes from educators abroad, and these educational opportunities are now also under threat. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:36.000 The next article is about stablecoins, is the following article here. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:49.000 Nine major European banks are collaborating to launch an euro-pegged stablecoin compliant with Europe's market-in-crypto asset regulation, known as MICA. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:05:00.000 The stablecoin is planned to launch in the second half of 2026 and is designed to provide near-instant, low-cost payment with 24/7 access to cross-border transactions. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:11.000 The banks established a new company, headquartered in the Netherlands, to oversee development and management, and the consortium remains open to other banks joining the project. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:21.000 The initiative aims to create a trusted European payment standard and provide a local alternative to the US-dominated stablecoin market. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:30.000 The stablecoin will also support programmable payments and improvements to supply chain management and digital asset settlements. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:44.000 This announcement came shortly after a European central bank executive estimated that the EU central bank digital currency, the digital euro, would not become reality until 2029. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:06:00.000 The banks have not disclosed which blockchain they will use for the stablecoin, and given that no permissioned blockchain has gained significant traction in the market so far, it would not be surprising if they chose a permissioned approach anyway. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:16.000 This would limit their chances even further as they are already late to the party, competing with established stablecoins like USDT and USDC, which have gained adoption partly due to their availability on open permissionless networks. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:34.000 We stay in the crypto world, and the next article is about Cloudflare again. We mentioned Cloudflare before with the distributed denial-of-service attacks. It's the following article here. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:07:00.000 Cloudflare announced that it will launch a US dollar-backed stablecoin called the NET Dollar. The stablecoin market has grown by more than $122 billion since this time last year, with the total market cap now exceeding $295 billion. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:22.000 The company stated that stablecoin is designed to power what it calls an AI-driven internet, with use cases including near-instant global transactions, rewarding creators for unique content, monetizing APIs, and enabling programmatic actions from AI agents for personal and business use. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:32.000 The Cloudflare CEO stated that the web needs a stablecoin purpose built for agents, micropayments, and other transactions. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:54.000 This announcement came shortly after Cloudflare established the x402 foundation in partnership with Coinbase to develop an open standard for digital payment, and one week after Google revealed its AI agent-focused payment protocol backed by Coinbase, the Ethereum foundation, and PayPal. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:06.000 Also, my students working on the qh:// protocol already include the HTTP payment directive. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:18.000 Details about the exact launch timeline are still outstanding and Cloudflare has not disclosed which blockchain the NET Dollar will use. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:30.000 However, in contrast to the Eurostablecoin with the nine banks I mentioned earlier, I'm optimistic that permissionless chains here will be used. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:40.000 The last article is about Circle's reversible USDC. It's the following article here. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:09:01.000 Circle, the world's second largest stablecoin issuer, is examining mechanisms that would allow USDC transactions to be reversed in case of fraud or hacks while still maintaining settlement finality, acknowledging an inherent tension between immediate transfer and irrevocability. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:27.000 This approach challenges a core principle of cryptocurrencies that transactions are final and beyond centralized control. Supporters argue reversible could help scam victims and increase mainstream trust in stablecoins, while critics see it as a threat to the decentralized model where transactions are permanent and immune from unilateral changes by issuers. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:44.000 The move comes as Circle pushes into institutional-grade infrastructure, having announced in August the launch of Arc, its own Layer 1 blockchain designed for enterprise-grade stablecoin payments using USDC as the native gas token. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:49.000 Arc is planned for fully launch by 2025. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:10:15.000 I see two problems. First, it adds a lot of complexity. Second, it is a fundamental shift where immutability, a central key element in blockchain design, is changed. The ability to reverse transactions introduces a centralized control mechanism that contradicts the trustless distributed nature of blockchain systems where consensus rules not some individuals. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:31.000 So, interesting times ahead. The stablecoin market is very lucrative as we have seen. The total market cap is approaching 300 billion USD and the business model here is straightforward. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:43.000 Hold customer deposits somewhere in a bank account or have it invested that earns interest while issuing stablecoins that pay zero interest to the holders. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:53.000 Even with a modest 1% interest rate on reserves, this generates substantial revenues and this is ultra-lucrative. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.000 That's it for this week. See you next week.