Today’s ZK Day at the Web3 Summit opened with a bold vision for Kusama, delivered by Web3 Foundation’s VP of Ecosystem, Bill Laboon. No longer just a canary network, Kusama is becoming a phoenix. This will be a vibrant hub for cypherpunks and pioneers building at the cutting edge of Web3 and zero-knowledge technologies.
In this new paradigm, structured meets experimental. Or for a European city analogy, Polkadot is Zurich; Kusama is Berlin.
To support Kusama’s potential and roadmap, the Web3 Foundation will deploy 10 million DOT, backing three key tracks:
- PoP (Proof of Personhood)
- ZK technologies
- Artistic and social experiments
These initiatives aim to empower developers and communities to build, experiment, and communicate in new ways.
Syed Hasseini, Research Scientist at W3F, explored how Kusama can serve as the first touchpoint for ZK rollouts. Meanwhile, Richard Carback dug into privacy-preserving infrastructure. His message: privacy isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Oak Security Launches New Opsec Program; Bulletproofs Against State-Sponsored Attacks
Amid rising security risks from North Korean hackers, Dr. Jan Philipp Fritsche, Managing Director of Oak Security, unveiled details of the firm’s new Operational Security (OpSec) program, targeting one of DeFi’s most exploited vulnerabilities: operational security failure.
The initiative is an in-house education and cultural program designed to embed best practices across teams. It’s already live on high-profile DeFi platforms, including dYdX, among others.
From the Ronin to Bybit hack, operational security issues continue to drive the industry’s most damaging exploits. Unlike traditional corporate environments, DeFi often lacks structured OpSec discipline, leading to critical lapses like leaked secrets and session token exposure. Dr. Fritsche explained that increased threat levels from state-sponsored actors make robust OpSec mission-critical for any protocols navigating today’s DeFi landscape.
Mythical Games Plans to Reach 100m Players by the 2026 World Cup
Kasper Mai Jørgensen, CFO of Mythical Games, shared how the company has been onboarding millions of players to blockchain through games they actually want to play — without forcing them to engage with Web3 complexity.
Mythical hit major milestones, including 7 million downloads of NFL Rivals and over 5 million matches played in the first month of FIFA Rivals. They reshaped player economies with Quick Trades, enabling seamless multi-asset swaps executed on-chain, all without overwhelming players with crypto jargon. Jørgensen outlined Mythical’s ambition to reach 100 million players by the 2026 World Cup, powered by the Mythos Chain, now the #1 gaming chain by transaction volume.
He also previewed Pulse, an upcoming social, marketplace, and tournament app designed to unify fragmented gaming, trading, and social experiences across titles. Pulse will allow players to benefit from AI agents. This will allow Mythical to scale Web3 gaming far beyond the typical crypto-savvy audience.