Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said on July 29 that it had opened a criminal case against Telegram founder Pavel Durov and issued an international arrest warrant accusing him of “assisting terrorist activity.” According to the Russian authorities, the case centers on Telegram’s alleged failure to remove content used by Ukrainian intelligence units and what the FSB described as extremist groups to coordinate sabotage, cyber fraud, and armed attacks. Russian state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Interfax reported that the FSB claims Telegram has been linked to more than 153,000 crimes since 2022, spanning terrorism, extremism, and sabotage. The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years in Russia. Durov, who lives in Dubai and holds French and UAE citizenship, has previously said Russian authorities were trying to “fabricate a pretext” for a full ban on Telegram. The move comes after months of restrictions on the platform in Russia, including throttled download speeds and blocked video and voice calls. The report said the case is separate from Durov’s 2024 arrest in France and the investigation tied to that incident.

GnosisDAO has formally introduced GIP-153, a governance proposal that asks the community for directional consensus on moving Gnosis Chain away from its current position as an independent Layer 1 and into an Ethereum Economic Zone, or EEZ, rollup. The proposal, written by Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst together with Philippe Schommers and Ben Carvill, is notable for saying plainly that Gnosis Chain’s standalone L1 positioning has failed. It argues that the chain’s promise of credible neutrality overlaps too heavily with Ethereum, while Gnosis lacks the scale and liquidity to justify carrying a full security stack on its own. The document lays out the economic pressure behind that conclusion. According to the proposal, Gnosis Chain’s fee revenue does not cover network security costs, forcing GnosisDAO’s treasury to subsidize the gap and causing about 2.3% annual dilution for non-stakers. It also points to a TVL of roughly $91 million and a GNO market capitalization of around $280 million, figures it presents as marginal in the current L1 race. Rather than becoming a standard L2, Gnosis wants to adopt the EEZ framework, whose main pitch is synchronous composability with Ethereum. If implemented, the shift would also unlock about 350,000 staked GNO, remove the existing validator set, and hand sequencing to Gnosis Ltd. Community voting is expected in August to September 2026.

The BBC has published an interactive test asking readers to tell real human faces from AI-generated ones, and its main takeaway is not that synthetic faces are flawless, but that people tend to overestimate their ability to spot them. That gap is turning deepfakes into a practical tool for social-engineering attacks tied to online hiring. The report says fake recruitment outreach has become an effective lure, especially for people working in tech, Web3, and AI. Attackers often pose as recruiters, well-known companies, or startup hiring teams on LinkedIn, X, and Telegram, offering attractive remote roles and salaries. Once a target agrees to interview, they may be asked to download an “interview app,” install a meeting tool, open a macro-enabled file, or run a coding test that actually contains malware or an infostealer. The BBC also cites research from the Australian National University showing that participants identified AI faces with an accuracy rate of about 41%. According to the report, today’s most convincing AI faces often look suspicious not because they appear broken, but because they seem too symmetrical, too polished, and too statistically perfect.

The U.S. State Department is preparing to launch the Freedom Tech Excellence Program, a new initiative that brings Bitcoin into a broader digital-freedom agenda. According to Bitcoin Magazine, the program will involve the Bitcoin Policy Institute, Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation as founding partners. The effort is set to address a range of issues tied to online rights and state power, including digital surveillance, encryption, AI governance, and the protection of free expression on the internet. The program’s stated priorities cover five areas: First Amendment and free-expression protections in the digital era; efforts to counter unlawful digital surveillance and online scams; support for privacy-enhancing tools such as strong encryption and VPNs; responsible governance of emerging technologies including AI; and online safety protections for children and other users. Bitcoin Magazine said the inclusion of the Bitcoin Policy Institute suggests the department sees Bitcoin and blockchain as relevant tools for bypassing censorship and financial surveillance in authoritarian states. The article also places the move in the context of the Trump administration’s crypto posture, citing a March 2025 executive order that established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile backed by roughly 200,000 BTC already held by the government through criminal and civil forfeiture.

The UK government plans to ban under-16s from major social media platforms and restrict access to certain AI chatbots, with the measures potentially taking effect in spring 2027.

Human-Centered Computing Foundation (HCCF) gains ICANN ASP eligibility, applies for new .self top-level domain. Each person gets one free subdomain, aiming for data sovereignty but faces multiple hurdles before launch.

Quantum computing is not a threat to crypto but an infrastructure migration. Post-quantum cryptography, tamper-evident communication, and physical randomness will become baseline—freeing blockchain to focus on coordination for autonomous AI agents.

Reports say Iran is moving toward a permanent two-tier internet system that would keep most users inside the National Information Network, while Chainalysis says users are withdrawing Bitcoin from exchanges into self-custody wallets as the rial loses value.