I was hoping @1440000bytes would post this here themselves, but I suppose we will have no such luck.
Q - Can we expect the next libbitcoin release by Jan 2026?A - We have completed all of our objectives for a libbitcoin-node release preview, and are now working on the libbitcoin-server (client-server) interface. I expect this will start to mature around the end of the year, making it possible to provide a functional preview in early 2026.
Q - I’ve read that the initial sync takes less time, with no mempool, no chainstate, and a different bootstrapping process. What other differences are there compared to Core?A - IBD to 900k blocks is under 1 hour on a 2.3Gbps (measured) cable Internet on a $350 mini PC running Windows. This is using a 900k "milestone" setting (same security model as "assume valid"). This is bandwidth limited.
Q - Is there anything related to privacy that libbitcoin does better than core?A - Apart from Tor support, privacy aspects of a Bitcoin node are limited to the protocol, not the implementation.
Check out the full QnA for more questions and longer answers -- it's an interesting read.