Performance Engineer

In brief Chunked is a fully on-chain clone of Minecraft running on the Somnia network testnet.The experimental game puts every in-game action on-chain in a test of the network's capabilities.Developer MSquared is part of Improbable, a prominent gaming infrastructure firm.Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub. Discover SCENEA Minecraft clone on the Somnia blockchain testnet called Chunked puts every in-game action on the blockchain—from a player’s movement to every block placed, mined, and crafted.Creator MSquared, a division of metaverse tech builder Improbable, says this is the first of a number of blockchain experiments as the firm looks to see how far it can push the boundaries of crypto gaming.Playing the game is a smooth experience, even with all the on-chain hooks, as there isn’t noticeable lag when placing or mining a block. That said, some issues can arise when crafting with blocks momentarily disappearing from a player's inventory. Plus, the game world’s borders are fairly small, significantly reducing the infinite sandbox experience of the real Minecraft.It's Chunk'in time! Our on-chain MMO Sandbox is now live - Every block placed, mined, or crafted is a verifiable event on the @Somnia_Network blockchain ⛏️ pic.twitter.com/k2GTxBJf1H — MSquared (M²) (@MSquared_io) April 11, 2025MSquared CEO Rob Whitehead told Decrypt that while it’s still in a “tech demo” state, the game is designed to be a true Web3 game—not just a Web2 game with NFTs “bolted on the side.”Whitehead explained that Chunked doesn’t have a traditional server backing it, with everything being supported by the Somnia testnet. As such, if MSquared decided to stop supporting the game, it would still exist on-chain forever and could be picked back up by the community to continue development.“All of the world data of Chunked and all [of its] logic is on Somnia, so it's free to be interacted with and read from indefinitely,” Whitehead said. “The logic of Chunked is a series of on-chain smart contracts that will be open-sourced

The White House has redirected its official COVID-19 information portal, COVID.gov, to a new landing page titled “Lab Leak: The True Origins of COVID-19.” Late Friday night, the administration dropped a post on X saying “DEFINITELY DON’T VISIT COVID.GOV,” followed by a giggling emoji.The page may not serve as conclusive evidence of the pandemic origins that claimed more than seven million lives globally and was responsible for some of the worst economic turmoil our world has ever seen, but it’s a clear endorsement of the theory that the pandemic began with a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China.Five main arguments of the Lab Leak theoryThe landing page cites the final report from the Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, and presents five main arguments supporting the lab leak hypothesis.It claims that the virus exhibits features not found in nature, originated from a single human introduction, and that researchers at Wuhan’s top SARS lab fell ill with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, long before the virus appeared at the wet market.The report also affirms that China’s foremost SARS research lab (with a history of gain-of-function research) is based in Wuhan and alleges that it has “inadequate biosafety levels.” Finally, it argues that if there had been evidence of a natural origin, it would have appeared by now.The administration also attacks public government officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, and New York mayor Andrew Cuomo for promoting research designed to dismiss the lab leak theory, and for making false statements to the Select Subcommittee.COVID-19 and the crypto marketsThe COVID-19 pandemic is widely recognized as a “black swan” event, an unpredictable and unprecedented crisis that sent shockwaves through global financial markets in March 2020. The rapid spread of the virus and the announcement of global lockdowns triggered extreme volatility and panic selling across asset classes, including crypto.Bitcoin and other digital assets, which had not previously experienced a major systematic crisis, saw sharp declines as investors rushed to liquidate positions and seek safety in cash. Between March 12 and April 1, 2020, the crypto market underwent a period of intense panic and sell-offs, mirroring broader market uncertainty. Bitcoin, which had traded near $7,000 before the crisis, saw its price plunge alongside equities as investors scrambled for liquidity.However, thanks to the magic money printers of global governments worldwide pumping trillions into their economies, the crypto sector quickly rebounded. By July 2020, the market had largely recovered, and Bitcoin began a historic rally

The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a Stop Work Order for GeoVax’s investigational COVID-19 vaccine GEO-CM04S1, which the Atlanta biotech was developing under a government-sponsored initiative.According to GeoVax, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has decided to withdraw its funding for the biotech, originally granted under Project NextGen, a $5 billion effort started under the Biden administration to support the development of next-generation vaccines and therapies.GeoVax was using its Project NextGen award to run a Phase IIb trial for GEO-CM04S1, a multi-antigen shot designed to elicit “broader, more durable” COVID-19 protection, according to the biotech’s Wednesday announcement of the order. The contract termination took effect on April 11.GeoVax CEO David Dodd, in a statement, called the HHS’s Stop Work Order “disappointing and surprising,” though he nevertheless affirmed the biotech’s “commitment” to developing GEO-CM04S1. According to the company, the investigational shot has so far shown promise as both a primary vaccine and as a booster, eliciting encouraging immune response and durability even in patients who are inadequately protected by currently approved vaccines.GeoVax has fully enrolled its healthy-adult trial to test GEO-CM04S1 as a booster and expects a readout in the first half of the year. Studies in immunocompromised patients—one in adults with a specific blood cancer and another in patients who had received stem cell or CAR T treatments—are currently enrolling participants.“Our clinical momentum is strong in support of our ongoing Phase 2 GEO-CM04S1 programs,” Dodd said.GeoVax isn’t the first biotech to lose HHS funding for a vaccine study. In February, the government likewise slapped Vaxart with a Stop Work Order, pausing a multibillion-dollar contract for the study of an oral COVID-19 vaccine.Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr