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Foresight News reports that Nicolas Bacca (btchip), founder of the Ethereum Foundation-supported research institution ZKNox and former Ledger co-founder and CTO, introduced the latest technology developments in deep hardware wallet integration with Ethereum at the EthCC[9] conference. He pointed out that because EVM does not natively support some efficient cryptographic signatures and complex verification logic, hardware wallets have long struggled to fully support the advanced features introduced by account abstraction. ZKNox has reduced the on-chain verification cost of the quantum-resistant Falcon signature scheme from 24 million Gas to 2 million Gas, increasing efficiency by about 12 times, so that users can generate post-quantum secure signatures via hardware wallets with transaction costs approaching those of regular transactions. ZKNox is also developing a standardized SDK that will enable hardware wallets to seamlessly support account abstraction features such as social recovery, multi-signature, and complex permission management, and is exploring the generation of zero-knowledge proofs on the hardware device itself, allowing on-chain signature verification without exposing sensitive information. Nicolas stated that ZKNox's goal is to establish an open-source hardware security standard, making hardware wallets a universal quantum-resistant digital identity signer across L2s and application scenarios.

Golden Ten Data reported on April 2 that, according to a survey by the Bank of England, driven by soaring energy costs caused by Middle East conflict, British companies plan to implement larger price increases. Companies surveyed in March stated that they plan to raise prices by 3.7% in the next year, higher than 3.4% in the previous month, marking the highest level since October last year. Businesses also expect overall consumer prices to rise by 3.5%, while the forecast in February was 3%. These data indicate that, after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran leading to a surge in energy prices, inflationary pressures are building. Bank of England policymakers are weighing the risk of second-round effects against the threats to economic growth and employment. In an interview on Wednesday, Bank of England Governor Bailey said he believes companies' ability to pass on higher costs is limited. The survey shows wage expectations fell by 0.1 percentage points to 3.4%, the lowest level since the Bank of England began collecting this data in 2022, while employment plans further deteriorated.

Golden Ten Data reported on April 2 that Interactive Investor analyst Richard Hunter stated in a report that, as markets in Europe, Asia, and the Americas are about to enter the Easter long weekend, investors may further sell off risk assets such as stocks and corporate bonds for precautionary reasons. “Traders are unlikely to maintain positions ahead of a long weekend, as they have been caught off guard by unexpected events multiple times in the past,” he said. Following U.S. President Trump’s national address on Wednesday, warning that the Middle East war could escalate in the next two to three weeks, market risk appetite has already declined.