#smart contracts
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Polkadot upgrade 2025 – SDK 2509 lands early October
Polkadot will finalize three pillars – asynchronous backing, agile coretime, and elastic scaling – culminating in the Polkadot SDK 2509 release targeted for early October 2025. The upgrade also brings Ethereum-compatible contracts on Polkadot Hub and a RISC-V-based PolkaVM for next-gen smart contracts. 
What Is Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BVM)?
Bitcoin Virtual Machine, shortly BitVM or BVM, is a blockchain infrastructure that brings complex smart contracts to the Bitcoin Network, thus enabling new use cases for it. The solution was first proposed in the paper “BitVM: Compute Anything on Bitcoin” by developer Robin Linus on October 9, 2023. 
Why Replacing Government with Blockchain is Not a Good Idea
Automating government functions with smart contracts might seem appealing, but is it truly a wise choice? We explore the reasons why replacing traditional government structures with a blockchain-based system could be problematic and the potential challenges of integrating blockchain technology within government operations. 
The Stellar Development Foundation has supported the decision to delay the network's update to add smart contracts due to a software bug. Initially, foundation representatives minimized the severity of this bug but revised their position in response to critiques from the developer community. 
North Korea stores malware in blockchain smart contracts
North Korean hackers have started using EtherHiding, a blockchain-based technique, to distribute malware and steal cryptocurrency, according to Google's Threat Intelligence Group. The group identified as UNC5342 represents the first nation-state actor observed using this method. 
The Cardano mainnet was targeted by a DDoS attack in which the perpetrator attempted to overload the system by launching hundreds of smart contracts in an effort to steal staked tokens. However, the developers coordinated a response that successfully thwarted the attack, resulting in the hacker losing funds instead. How to Revoke Smart Contract Permissions?
Granting a smart contract permission authorizes a programmed algorithm to autonomously perform actions with your digital assets. These permissions can be granted for various purposes, such as participating in DApps, voting within DAOs, or managing your NFTs. But how do you revoke these permissions? 
Web3 development platform Thirdweb has detected a critical vulnerability in its open-source library, impacting various NFT collections. This issue affects a range of pre-built smart contracts, including DropERC20, ERC721, ERC1155, and AirdropERC20. 