Crypto

Aztec releases v5 alpha, says fully private transaction proofs possible on mobile phones

Crypto privacy project Aztec has released its v5 upgrade in an alpha stage. Co-founder Williamson Aztec (윌리엄슨 아즈텍) said the upgrade was pursued to make fully private transactions the default in the Ethereum ecosystem. Aztec said the update more than halves proof times, cuts average private transaction costs by about 50 percent and reduces average block times to 6 seconds from 14. It also lowers rollup proof verification costs by about 40 percent.

Finance

Four major financial groups\' net profit tops 11 trillion won, competition shifts from banks to capital markets

South Korea’s four major financial holding groups posted combined first-half net profit of 11.34 trillion won, up 9.8 percent from a year earlier, helped by steady interest income and rising fee income from capital-market businesses such as securities, wealth management and investment banking. As non-bank earnings contributions expanded, the competitive focus among groups increasingly shifted to capital markets. In banking, Shinhan Bank led in net profit, while Woori Bank was the only one to decline.