4 weeks ago
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As part of efforts to digitize its local economy, Vietnam has announced a national blockchain platform with far-reaching functionalities for key sectors.
The NDAChain is a state-run blockchain offering a decentralized layer to protect national systems, including finance, healthcare, and supply chains. Developed by Vietnam’s National Data Association (NDA), the new layer 1 distributed ledger will be operated by the Ministry of Public Security’s Data Innovation and Exploitation Center.
NDAChain has 49 validator nodes managed by a mix of government agencies and leading corporations. Leaning on a permissioned ledger system, Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism, and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), authorities say the platform will support a raft of digital initiatives.
Vietnam’s National Decentralized Identity System (NDA DID) will utilize the NDAChain infrastructure. Additionally, the report emphasizes NDAChain’s applications in combating counterfeit products in the food and pharmaceutical sectors via “end-to-end product origin authentication.”
Authorities say NDAChain enables automation in manufacturing and logistics verticals, particularly in the verification and certification of documents. Others point to the stifling of fraud and document falsification in the education, insurance, and finance sectors.
Vietnam is tipping the NDAChain to solve the nagging issues associated with centralized data models. Authorities say the decentralized platform will prevent scathing data breaches while prioritizing scalability and efficiency.
However, NDA executive Nguyen Huy revealed that Vietnam’s NDAChain contains elements of centralization, merging the best of both worlds to deliver value.
“Vietnam has chosen a hybrid data architecture that blends centralized and decentralized components,” said Huy.
Going forward, the next development phase will focus on industry-specific layer 2 applications. Furthermore, Vietnam will pursue international partnerships and organize a raft of training initiatives to smooth the integration curve for NDAChain.
Vietnam advances its digitalization ambitions
Since the start of the year, Vietnam has taken significant leaps with its plans to become the regional leader for digitization. The local ecosystem is still buzzing from the passage of the historic bill legalizing digital assets and backing the integration of emerging technologies.
Earlier in July, the country moved to establish an international financial center in Da Nang to compete with Hong Kong and Singapore. Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City and several local regions are unveiling their digitization road maps to mirror the central government’s plans.
Dating app hit with data breach
In other news, the women-only dating safety app Tea suffered a data leak after bad actors uncovered a massive loophole in its backend, with artificial intelligence (AI) being the primary culprit.
Hackers reportedly leaked the personal data of over 13,000 women, including government IDs, 72,000 private messages, and selfies on the anonymous imageboard platform, 4chan. While the original thread on 4chan has been deleted, automated scripts and decentralized file-sharing platforms are circulating the data.
Bad actors have mapped the data via categories, totalling 59.3 GB, and a portion of the leaked data is searchable. Amid the hack, Tea disclosed that the data involved in the breach is outdated, but a cursory look reveals IDs from 2024 and even as early as 2025.
The original hacker blamed AI-based vibe coding for the massive security breach, noting that Tea’s backend database did not contain any security features. He noted there were no passwords or encryption functionality to secure the personal data of over four million users.
“This is what happens when you entrust your personal information to a bunch of vibe-coding DEI hires,” read the original hacker’s post.
Vibe coding involves heavily using AI models to generate code for projects without implementing strict technical standards and security guidelines. While vibe coding is ideal for fun and personal projects, rolling out a mainstream project using chatbots has drawn a wave of criticism.
Researchers from Georgetown University discovered that nearly 50% of all AI-generated code contains security flaws. Furthermore, vibe coders risk installing packages with malicious code into their projects based on AI chatbot suggestions.
Despite the risks, Big Tech firms argue that AI tools generate a substantial part of their code base. A quarter of Y Combinator startups are leaning on AI for key features, but while tech giants can splurge on code reviews, the downsides for fledgling firms are glaring.
“Vibe coding is awesome, but the code these models generate is full of security holes and can be easily hacked,” said computer scientist Santiago Valdarrama.
Turning to blockchain to improve AI
Experts highlight the benefits of integrating blockchain into AI-generated code as an additional safety layer. One study revealed that code changes logged on-chain can prevent tampering or a rollback to malicious versions, preserving the immutability of legacy code.
Several enterprises are preparing for a wholesale integration between AI and blockchain, unveiling employee upskilling initiatives to deepen their talent pool. Currently, generative AI adoption among companies is surging while blockchain is playing second fiddle despite its head start by nearly a decade.
Watch: Blockchain could revolutionize cybersecurity
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