- Mastodon developers are exploring a semantic “trust graph” (GitHub issue #10096) that would let users tag others with nuanced labels—e.g., “too loud,” “gullible,” or “good content”—instead of a binary trust/untrust, aiming to prevent Sybil attacks and information overload while preserving reputation context.

- Discussion of negative vs. positive reputation metrics: Tim May favors only positive scores because identities with bad reputations can simply be discarded, but participants argue that explicit negative marks are more useful to end-users and should coexist with positive ones, despite regulatory risks.

- Chia’s “proof-of-space” blockchain is consuming ~1 exabyte of storage per day (974 PiB in 24 h), burning the equivalent of one 1 TB Samsung Evo SSD every 3 seconds and driving a 15 % price spike in used 4 TB drives; participants debate whether this is greener than proof-of-work or simply shifts waste to non-repurposable storage hardware.

- Security concerns raised: if Chia rewards raw storage capacity, malware authors may pivot from ransomware to silently deleting user data to free up space for farming, creating a powerful economic incentive for mass data destruction that is harder to detect than traditional ransomware.

- Technical details: Chia relies on verifiable delay functions (VDFs) for its “proof of time,” tolerates spinning disks, and could push storage manufacturers toward cheaper, less reliable devices; it is compared to Ethereum’s proof-of-memory-bandwidth and seen as a potential subsidy for under-utilized cloud storage.

- UC Berkeley is auctioning NFTs of historic invention-disclosure forms—starting with Jim Allison’s immunotherapy blockade and later Jennifer Doudna’s CRISPR patent filing—sparking commentary on the commercialization and “craziness” of the current NFT boom.

- A Hacker News thread comparing modern smartphones to the hand terminals in “The Expanse” was shared, along with an interview with Rhys Yorke, the motion-graphics designer for the series’ futuristic UI.

- nmz787 reported learning to model directed self-assembly (DSA) nanofabrication processes using LAM Research’s Coventor SEMulator3D, highlighting ongoing open-source interest in advanced lithography simulation tools.