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Project Pigeon Consortium Launches APAC Working Group to Advance Governance Standards for Permissionless Blockchains

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Joint initiative by Elliptic, Digital Asset Association (DAA), Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow to establish an industry standard risk-management framework, supporting safe innovation and Group 1 crypto asset treatment.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Project Pigeon consortium, jointly convened by Elliptic, the Digital Asset Association (DAA), the Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and Baker McKenzie, today announced the formation of “Project Pigeon: A Working Group for Permissionless Blockchain Governance in APAC”. This regional initiative is dedicated to advancing safe, compliant innovation on public blockchain networks, providing financial institutions with the frameworks necessary to operate securely within rapidly evolving regulatory landscapes.

The initiative takes its name from carrier pigeons, reflecting the consortium’s goal of developing trusted governance frameworks that enable secure communication and value transfer across open, decentralized blockchain networks.

The launch of the working group follows the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) April 2026 Consultation Paper regarding the prudential treatment of crypto assets on permissionless blockchains. A primary objective of Project Pigeon is to help banks and financial institutions assess and address regulatory considerations raised in the consultation through the development of a framework structured around four fundamental risk pillars, each spearheaded by a designated consortium co-convenor:

Governance Risk (led by RFI): Addressing node concentration, maintaining governance transparency, and ensuring strict accountability within decentralized ecosystems.Technology Risk (led by DAA): Mitigating threats such as 51% attacks, protocol vulnerabilities, smart contract exploits, and broader infrastructure risks.Settlement Finality Risk (led by Baker McKenzie): Evaluating consensus mechanisms, reconciling probabilistic versus deterministic finality, and establishing the legal certainty of settlement.AML/CFT Risk (led by Elliptic): Tackling challenges related to pseudonymity, implementing effective sanctions screening, leveraging advanced on-chain analytics, ensuring Travel Rule compliance and managing the linkage to prudential risk.

The working group brings together a diverse coalition of banks, crypto-native firms, digital asset exchanges, and legacy financial institutions operating across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Underscoring the systemic importance of this initiative, Project Pigeon has established observer and consulting roles for leading regulatory bodies.

Baker McKenzie serves as the official secretariat to the consortium, providing comprehensive editorial oversight, supporting engagement with regulators, and managing the consortium’s governance processes. This structured approach includes bi-weekly plenary sessions, focused meetings for the four workstream sub-groups, quarterly regulatory checkpoints, and monthly reviews conducted by the central Steering Committee comprising DAA, RFI, Elliptic, and Baker McKenzie.

The culmination of the consortium’s efforts will be an authoritative industry guide, “Pigeon Permissionless Blockchains”, which will set out a practical, end-to-end risk management lifecycle framework and executable guidelines for risk and compliance managers, referencing existing industry standards and regulatory guidance. This comprehensive publication will feature a detailed risk taxonomy, catalogues of risk events, preventive and detective controls, governance mechanisms, methodologies for controls testing, and protocols for issues management and reporting. Alongside the guide, the consortium will release a dedicated regulatory briefing paper tailored for supervisors across the APAC region. The target publication date for the industry guide is set for Q1 2027.

Underscoring the drive toward a unified framework, the consortium’s workstream leads commented:

“Robust governance is the missing link between decentralized ideals and institutional reality. Our focus is on creating transparent accountability mechanisms that satisfy regulatory expectations without stifling innovation.”

Chia Hock Lai, Chairman, Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI)

“The underlying technology of public chains is immensely powerful, yet undeniably complex. We are dedicated to producing actionable controls that shield financial institutions from protocol vulnerabilities and adversarial network actions.”

Jag Foo, ExCo Member & Chair of Digital Assets Security Subcommittee, Digital Assets Association (DAA)

“Legal certainty is fundamental to the functioning of financial markets. As the use of permissionless blockchain networks continues to evolve, there is a growing need for greater clarity around the legal and governance considerations among financial institutions. Project Pigeon provides a platform to examine these issues and contribute to the development of practical approaches for the industry.”

Stephanie Magnus, Principal, Financial Services Regulatory and FinTech, Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow

“As the adoption of permissionless chains accelerates, so too must our approach to financial crime compliance. By embedding advanced on-chain analytics and Travel Rule compliance directly into the operational lifecycle, we are ensuring that transparency and security go hand-in-hand.”

June Lau, APAC Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Elliptic

Interested financial institutions, technology providers and regulatory bodies are invited to participate in the working groups or contribute to the public consultation phase. To express interest, contribute expertise or receive official updates, please contact the Project Pigeon secretariat.

ABOUT PROJECT PIGEON

Project Pigeon is a regional working group and industry consortium focused on establishing governance and risk management standards for the use of permissionless blockchains by financial institutions in the APAC region. Convened by Elliptic, DAA, RFI, and Baker McKenzie, the initiative bridges the gap between decentralised technology and institutional regulatory compliance.

ABOUT ELLIPTIC

Elliptic is the global leader in cryptoasset risk management for crypto businesses, governments and financial institutions worldwide. Recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, Elliptic protects the cryptoasset economy from financial crime with advanced on-chain analytics and AML/CFT compliance solutions.

ABOUT THE DIGITAL ASSET ASSOCIATION (DAA)

The Digital Asset Association (DAA) is an industry body dedicated to fostering a responsible, secure, and innovative digital asset ecosystem. The DAA collaborates with policymakers, technology developers, and financial institutions to promote best practices and mitigate technology risks in blockchain infrastructure.

ABOUT THE RESPONSIBLE FINTECH INSTITUTE (RFI)

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) is a global nonprofit organization based in Singapore. Our goal is to create a safe, trustworthy, and reliable future for digital finance by building the digital utilities to support responsible innovation. Our work involves bringing together different public and private sector stakeholders to help build the necessary rules and technology for new digital financial tools, making the digital asset world sustainable and inclusive for everyone.

ABOUT BAKER MCKENZIE WONG & LEOW

Baker McKenzie empowers clients to compete in the global economy. The Firm provides comprehensive and practical legal advice that cuts through complexity with clear, actionable guidance. Its people represent diverse cultures and jurisdictions, combining local know-how with international expertise to help businesses thrive across borders.

Baker McKenzie’s global Fintech practice advises financial institutions, fintech innovators, digital asset businesses and technology companies on complex legal, regulatory and governance issues arising from emerging technologies and digital financial services. Drawing on experience across established and emerging markets, the team helps clients navigate evolving regulatory frameworks, assess legal and governance considerations, and support the responsible development and adoption of innovative financial services. Its work spans areas including digital assets, digital payments, tokenization, market infrastructure and other technology-enabled financial services.

Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow is the Singapore member firm of Baker McKenzie.

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SOURCE Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI)

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Sobot Upgrades its AI Agents, Moving from Answers to Results

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Built to Solve, Backed by a Full System of Support

SINGAPORE, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sobot, the agentic customer contact platform, announced an upgrade to its AI Agents. This upgrade didn’t come from a smarter model alone, but from a fundamental change in how Agents think and act.

What’s New in Sobot Agents

Reasoning in Action: From Answering Questions to Getting Things Done

Previously, Sobot followed a workflow-trigger pattern: businesses built a workflow in advance, mapping out how the Agent should respond to each customer behavior. Once a customer’s intent was recognized, the Agent simply followed that path. It couldn’t adapt when a situation fell outside the workflow, and nothing fed back into the Agent’s own decision-making until the process had run its course.

The upgraded Sobot Agents work differently, running on a continuous loop of reasoning, acting, and observing, a pattern known as ReAct. Take a return request: instead of following a workflow, the Agent works out what information it still needs, checks it against what the customer has already shared, and asks for the rest. Workflows still suit scenarios that need a fixed process; this is simply a more adaptive option. RAG keeps every answer grounded in the right knowledge, and ReAct turns that understanding into a finished task.

The foundation of Sobot Agents lies in a unified resource layer of knowledge, skills, tools, MCPs, memory, and variables, centrally managed and shared across every Agent rather than configured separately. A skill built to handle one type of request only needs to be created once, then any Agent can call on it automatically whenever it recognizes a matching scenario, without rebuilding it from scratch.

Conversational Building: From Expert Configuration to Simplified Setup

Building an AI Agent used to mean specialist-level setup: bot styles, prompts, knowledge bases, and even more, each on its own separate page. In the updated Sobot Agents Studio, businesses simply describe what they want to build in a conversation, the same way they might explain a task to a colleague, covering the relevant business materials and what the Agent is expected to do. The Studio then pulls up the right settings on its own, and no page switching is needed. Knowledge, skills, and tools all come together in one place.

Ask AI for Data: Performance Insights in Natural Language

The upgrade introduces “Ask AI for Data”, changing how businesses assess their own AI Agents’ performance. Sobot used to bring performance data together in one dashboard, but businesses could only view preset templates. With so many metrics available, managers had to dig through them, find the ones that mattered, and work out the comparisons on their own. Now, instead of reading a dashboard, managers can simply ask a question in natural language and get a direct answer, complete with trend interpretation, anomaly flags, and next steps to take.

Nexus and Experts: The Infrastructure and Expertise Behind Every Agent

Sobot Agents handle customer interactions independently, but they don’t run in isolation. That independence is backed by two more layers: Nexus and Experts.

Sobot Nexus is the unified infrastructure every Agent runs on. It connects every channel customers might come from, including website and app chat, voice, email, and social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, into a single platform. It also gives agents a unified workspace: when a request needs a human touch, it transfers there with the full conversation history, so nothing needs to be repeated. An AI Copilot works alongside the human agent throughout, helping them handle the conversation more efficiently.

Sobot Experts stay involved throughout a business’s journey with Sobot Agents. AI Strategists design implementation plans aligned with businesses’ goals; Deployment Specialists configure and launch Agents for stable operation; AI Trainers refine models using real conversation data; and Operation Analysts monitor performance and flag where to adjust next. Rather than stepping back once a system is delivered, Experts keep observing and tuning, driving steady gains in accuracy.

Sobot: Redefining What AI Solves in Customer Contact

“We’re moving AI in customer contact from a supporting role to a leading one. The question is no longer how well AI can assist a human agent, but how much AI can resolve on its own. That’s the direction we see the whole industry heading, and it’s the direction we’re building Sobot toward,” said Yi Xu, CEO of Sobot.

This upgrade reflects that shift: Sobot Agents are now built to finish a customer’s request, not just respond to it, freeing up businesses’ people for what genuinely needs a human touch.

For more information, please visit https://www.sobot.io/.

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SOURCE Sobot

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Mouser Electronics New Product Insider: Over 5,000 New Parts Added in Second Quarter of 2026

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SHANGHAI, July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As an authorized distributor, Mouser Electronics, Inc. is focused on the rapid introduction of new electronic components and technologies, giving customers an edge and helping speed time to market. Over 1,200 semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers count on Mouser to help them introduce their newest products to the global marketplace. Mouser’s customers can expect 100% certified, genuine products that are fully traceable from each manufacturer.

Last quarter, Mouser launched more than 5,000 part numbers ready for shipment.

Some of the products introduced by Mouser from April through June include:

Renesas Electronics RX14T Motor Control Microcontrollers
Featuring a 48MHz RXv2 core with floating-point unit (FPU) and digital signal processing (DSP) support, the RX14T microcontrollers, from Renesas Electronics, balance cost, functionality, and motor control performance. The RX14T entry-level MCUs are specifically designed for cost-efficient motor control applications, including home appliances, power factor correction (PFC) control, building automation, such as HVAC and water pumps, power tools, and other small-motor market devices.Microchip Technology PIC16F13276 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit
The PIC16F13276 Curiosity Nano evaluation kit (EV18Z11A) from Microchip Technology provides an evaluation and prototyping platform for the PIC16F1327 8-bit microcontrollers. The board is equipped with full programming, debugging, and hardware‑level evaluation capabilities, allowing users to easily explore the performance and peripherals of the PIC16F13276 MCU. The Curiosity Nano kit is designed to integrate seamlessly with Microchip’s MPLAB® Tools for VS Code® and the MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment (IDE), providing quick access to the MCU’s Configurable Logic Block (CLB) and Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs). By implementing the MCC graphical interface, developers can quickly configure peripherals, generate optimized code, and customize device functionality for a wide range of embedded applications.DFRobot SEN0691 Fermion C4002 mmWave Human Presence Sensor
The SEN0691 Fermion C4002 mmWave human presence sensor by DFRobot delivers “True Presence” automation with micro-motion detection. Traditional PIR sensors often fail to detect stationary occupants, leading to inconvenient lighting deactivation. The Fermion C4002 mmWave radar module resolves this by utilizing 24 GHz FMCW technology to detect micro-motions (such as breathing and chest expansion). Capable of distinguishing between moving, stationary, and micro-moving targets within a 10 × 10 meter range, this module serves as a reliable core component for smart lighting, HVAC control, and security monitoring in Home Assistant and IoT systems.Phoenix Contact Hybrid Connectors for Energy Storage
The Hybrid Connectors for Energy Storage from Phoenix Contact combine power and signal interfaces, making them an all-in-one solution for energy storage applications. These connectors provide a reliable and safe connection for power and signal contacts, a preassembled interface for time savings, and a safe connection to compensate for manufacturing and mounting tolerances.

To see more New Product Insider highlights, visit https://info.mouser.com/new_products/.

For more Mouser news and our latest new product introductions, visit https://www.mouser.com/newsroom/.

Mouser Electronics, Inc. is the industry’s leading New Product Introduction (NPI) distributor with the widest selection of semiconductors and electronic components™.

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SOURCE Mouser Electronics

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Wieson Technologies Announces First-Half 2026 Operating Results: Revenue of NT$1.567 Billion, Second-Half Focus on AI Thermal Management and Robotics

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TAIPEI, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Wieson Technologies (6272) announced its operating results for the first half of 2026, with consolidated revenue of NT$1.567 billion, gross margin of 21%, and earnings per share of NT$0.13.

Regarding the changes in revenue and profit in the first half, the automotive segment was mainly affected by the decline in mainland China’s domestic auto sales market, while the smart electronics segment was mainly affected by memory chips being concentrated in AI applications and prices surging several-fold, leading customers to reduce order demand for the company’s smart electronic components in order to control costs, as well as customers delaying pull-in due to chip supply shortages. Despite facing external environmental challenges, the company maintained gross margin above 20% through cost control and product mix optimization, laying a solid foundation for operations and technology development in the second half of the year.

For the second half of 2026, as AI technology gradually expands from cloud computing to physical application endpoints, the global robotics market and AI server demand are entering a phase of technological upgrading. Wieson Technologies will increase R&D investment in three main new business areas — robotics, thermal transfer, and high-frequency high-speed — raising R&D expenses to approximately 7% of revenue, to advance product deployment and technology upgrades.

Robotics Market: Integrating Four Key Technologies As industrial automation deepens, AI, autonomous mobile, and humanoid robots are gradually moving from R&D validation into factories, logistics, and service settings, driving related components toward higher reliability, high-speed transmission, high power, and greater integration. Wieson Technologies will position itself around “Connection × Data × Power × Thermal” as its core, focusing on key applications such as robotic joints, motor drives, sensors, controllers, machine vision, and edge AI computing. The company will strengthen its signal, power, and communication connection solutions, and extend its high-speed data transmission and thermal management technologies to meet the needs of next-generation robots for real-time computing, precise control, and long-term stable operation. By integrating these four core technology capabilities, Wieson plans to move from being a single-component supplier toward becoming an integrated solutions provider, continuing to expand into the industrial robot, mobile robot, and humanoid robot markets.

Advanced Thermal Transfer Business Unit: Developing Diverse AI Thermal Management Solutions Currently, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers consumes a large amount of wafer capacity, and memory suppliers have shifted their focus toward enterprise-grade products, resulting in a structural shortage of consumer-grade GDDR memory, which in turn affects PC and notebook shipments and raises PC costs. In response to these market changes, Wieson’s Thermal Transfer Business Unit continues to advance technology development. For the LGA9324 series CPUs to be launched by Intel and the SP8 series CPUs to be launched by AMD in the fourth quarter of 2026, Wieson has completed testing and validation of the corresponding server CPU thermal module thermal management solutions. In addition, to address the thermal management needs of GPUs or ASICs in PCIe and OAM architectures for AI computing power, the R&D team provides customized thermal simulation analysis and develops both active and passive thermal modules. To meet the thermal management target of up to 800W for next-generation consumer graphics cards, Wieson has also developed air-cooling and AIO liquid-cooling modules (WATERCOOLER), offering customers a diverse range of cooling options.

High-Speed Transmission Business Unit: Developing High-Speed and High-Reliability Applications Wieson continues to invest in the development of high-frequency, high-speed products and the upgrading of automated production processes for the Server, Storage, IPC, and HPC markets. To further upgrade its high-speed transmission connector analysis and manufacturing technologies, the company has invested in a 67G high-frequency network analyzer and automated test equipment to meet customers’ stringent requirements for signal stability and data transmission speed across different application environments, providing high-stability, low-loss product options and helping customers smoothly develop and mass-produce next-generation products.

Overall, Wieson Technologies will maintain stable financial operations and continued investment in R&D resources. By integrating connections, data, power, and thermal technologies, the company will continue to monitor market demand and provide technology solutions aligned with the development trends of AI and smart manufacturing, striving to meet global customers’ product development and application needs in the second half of the year.

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SOURCE WIESON TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

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