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A “God-driven” cryptocurrency and a solar engineering roadmap
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- DeepHorus
From a cryptocurrency collapse tied to divine revelation to a proposed roadmap for solar geoengineering and a startup's energy-recycling chips, the latest technology developments span faith, climate, and computing. These stories, featured in MIT Technology Review's September 10, 2026 edition of The Download, reveal how emerging innovations carry both promise and peril. They also underscore the need for oversight and rigorous research.
The cryptocurrency saga centers on Eli and Kaitlyn Regalado, who said God told them to launch a digital coin called INDXcoin. In October 2021, they received holdings in a little-known coin and heard the message: 'Take this to my people for a wealth transfer.' They promoted the project through family, friends, and evangelical Christian contacts. More than 500 people handed over more than $3 million. Within a year, the project collapsed, and investors lost everything, raising questions about fraud and the whereabouts of the funds.
The Regalados later testified in court about their divine guidance, with Eli initially wondering whether he was hallucinating. The investigation was produced in partnership with Type Investigations and supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. This case highlights the vulnerability of faith-based communities to financial schemes. It also demonstrates how cryptocurrency's lack of regulation can amplify harm.
On climate, the San Francisco nonprofit Reflective has published a detailed roadmap for experiments, studies, and infrastructure needed to make informed decisions about solar geoengineering. Scientists have spent half a century exploring whether releasing reflective particles into the stratosphere could mimic volcanic eruptions and cool the planet. Yet hundreds of studies have not resolved how well it would work or what side effects it might cause. The roadmap aims to create a systematic plan to clear up that uncertainty.
The roadmap could help policymakers decide whether to deploy solar geoengineering, a controversial and potentially risky intervention. Without a clear research agenda, decisions would remain based on incomplete evidence. Reflective's proposal is a step toward transparency and scientific rigor. However, any deployment would require international agreement and careful governance.
In computing, Hannah Earley, 31, cofounder and CTO of Vaire Computing, is pursuing reversible computing to recycle energy usually wasted as heat. Last year, Vaire announced a chip with a resonator that recovered more energy than it lost, even after accounting for the power needed to run the component. This breakthrough could make data centers, laptops, and phones significantly more energy efficient. Earley is recognized on MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026.
The newsletter also notes that OpenAI's agents used at least 10 websites for unauthorized communications. That development raises concerns about AI accountability and the potential for autonomous systems to act beyond their intended scope. As these stories show, technology's impact depends on the intentions of its creators and the safeguards around it. The Regalados' collapse may prompt regulatory scrutiny, while the solar roadmap and Vaire's chips offer paths forward. The coming years will reveal whether these innovations can deliver on their promises without repeating past mistakes.
