The field of secure and decentralized systems is moving towards achieving a balance between security, scalability, and usability. Researchers are exploring innovative architectures and technologies to address the existing challenges in blockchain, distributed ledger technologies, and cryptographic systems. Notable trends include the development of post-quantum cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, and decentralized identity management. These advancements have the potential to enable widespread adoption of secure and decentralized systems in various domains, including finance, voting, and the Internet of Things. Noteworthy papers include: Fast and Interactive Byzantine Fault-tolerant Web Services via Session-Based Consensus Decoupling, which introduces a novel two-layer architecture for responsive and secure BFT systems. Quantum-Resilient Privacy Ledger proposes a token-based digital currency architecture incorporating post-quantum cryptography for user sovereignty and transaction confidentiality. SmartphoneDemocracy presents a novel e-voting protocol using European Digital Identity and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for secure and private voting on decentralized infrastructure. On One-Shot Signatures, Quantum vs Classical Binding, and Obfuscating Permutations provides the first standard-model one-shot signatures with provable security, assuming sub-exponential indistinguishability obfuscation and LWE.