schmidty

bitcoin

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #394 is here:

- looks at a proposed BIP for including supplemental information with output script descriptors
- summarizes popular Q&A from Stack Exchange
- Optech Newsletter #394 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/27/

Craig Raw posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list about a new BIP idea to provide useful metadata in the form of annotations, expressed as key/value pairs, appended directly to the descriptor...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/27/#draft-bip-for-output-script-descriptor-annotations

Selected Q&A from Bitcoin Stack Exchange
- Is Bitcoin BIP324 v2 P2P transport distinguishable from random traffic? 
- What if a miner just broadcasts the header and never gives the block? 
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/27/#selected-qa-from-bitcoin-stack-exchange

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter streaming live on X/Twitter Tuesday at 17:30 UTC.

Descriptor annotations, ASMap, Q&A - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #394

Misha Komarov, Erik De Smedt, and arbedout joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #393:

- Recent OP_RETURN output statistics
- Bitcoin PIPEs v2
- Changes to services and client software including: hArk-based Ark software, Sigbash v2 and others
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/02/24/  

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/F0j1y6kbC1r7M0zINYM6

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7BT9NHtzQGFZegi2UC98OK

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-393-recap/id1674626983?i=1000751237921

PIPEs, hArk, Sigbash v2 - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #393 Recap Podcast

Sebastian Falbesoner and Oleksandr Kurbatov joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #392:

- Proposal to limit the number of per-group silent payment recipients
- BLISK, Boolean circuit Logic Integrated into the Single Key
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/02/17/  

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/cepxpUMU4sikCSbeUtDQ 

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0EhHSmQZcDmBYZkTfzPdlT

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-392-recap/id1674626983?i=1000751215295

Silent payments, BLISK - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #392 Recap Podcast

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #393 is here:

- summarizes a discussion about recent OP_RETURN usage
- describes a protocol to enforce covenant-like spending conditions without consensus changes
- summarizes changes to services/client software including Ark software, silent payment and submarine swap support, and more
- Optech Newsletter #393 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/20/

Anthony Towns posted to Delving about the recent OP_RETURN statistics since the release of Bitcoin Core v30.0 on October 10...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/20/#recent-op-return-output-statistics

Misha Komarov posted to Delving Bitcoin about Bitcoin PIPEs, a protocol that allows enforcement of spending conditions without the need for consensus changes or optimistic challenge mechanisms...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/20/#bitcoin-pipes-v2

Changes to services and client software:
- Second releases hArk-based Ark software
- Amboss announces RailsX
- Nunchuk adds silent payment support
- Electrum adds submarine swap features
- Sigbash v2 announced
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/20/#changes-to-services-and-client-software

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter streaming live on X/Twitter Tuesday at 17:30 UTC.

OP_RETURN usage, Bitcoin PIPEs v2, and more - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #393

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #392 is here:

- summarizes discussion of improving worst-case silent payment scanning performance
- describes an idea for enabling many spending conditions in a single key
- Optech Newsletter #392 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/13/

Sebastian Falbesoner posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list the discovery and mitigation of a theoretical attack on silent payment recipients...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/13/#proposal-to-limit-the-number-of-per-group-silent-payment-recipients

Oleksandr Kurbatov posted to Delving Bitcoin about BLISK, a protocol designed to express complex authorization policies using boolean logic...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/13/#blisk-boolean-circuit-logic-integrated-into-the-single-key

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter streaming live on X/Twitter Tuesday at 17:30 UTC.

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #392

Toby Sharp, Chris Hyunhum Cho, Jonas Nick, and Antoine Poinsot joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #391:

- Work on a constant-time parallelized UTXO database
- A new higher level language for writing Bitcoin Script
- An idea to mitigate dust attacks
- Changing consensus including BIP54 consensus cleanup and post-quantum signature discussions including SHRINCS, Falcon, and SLH-DSA verification performance 
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/02/10/ 

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/l0uUTumdZY0kAla2qy4v

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6tEcuY5BSywl3cacrpaOpP

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-391-recap/id1674626983?i=1000749307135

Jonas Nick, Antoine Poinsot &more - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #391 Recap Podcast

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #391 is here:

- links to work on a constant-time parallelized UTXO database
- summarizes a new high-level language for writing Bitcoin Script
- describes an idea to mitigate dust attacks
- covers the SHRINCS 324-byte stateful post-quantum signatures with static backups paper
- highlights discussion to address remaining points on BIP54
- summarizes the Falcon post-quantum signature scheme proposal
- links to research showing SLH-DSA verification can compete with ECC
- Optech Newsletter #391 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/

Toby Sharp posted to Delving Bitcoin about his latest project, a custom, highly parallel UTXO database, with constant-time queries, called Hornet UTXO(1)...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/#a-constant-time-parallelized-utxo-database

Hyunhum Cho wrote on Delving Bitcoin about his work on Bithoven which is an alternative to miniscript...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/#bithoven-a-formally-verified-imperative-language-for-bitcoin-script

Bubb1es posted to Delving Bitcoin about a way to dispose of dust attacks in onchain wallets...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/#discussion-of-dust-attack-mitigations

Following-up on the Hash-based Signature Schemes for Bitcoin, Jonas Nick detailed on Delving Bitcoin a specific hash-based quantum-resistant signature algorithm with potentially useful properties for use in Bitcoin...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/#shrincs-324-byte-stateful-post-quantum-signatures-with-static-backups

Antoine Poinsot wrote about the remaining points of discussion for the consensus cleanup soft fork...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/#addressing-remaining-points-on-bip54

Giulio Golinelli posted on the mailing list proposing a fork to enable Falcon signature verification to Bitcoin...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/#falcon-post-quantum-signature-scheme-proposal

Conduition wrote about his ongoing work benchmarking his post-quantum SLH-DSA verification implementation against libsecp256k1...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/02/06/#slh-dsa-verification-can-compete-with-ecc

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter streaming live on X/Twitter Tuesday at 17:30 UTC.

Changing consensus and more - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #391

Liam Eagen joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #390:

- The Argo garbled-circuits scheme
- An LN-Symmetry update
- 5 questions from the Bitcoin Stack Exchange
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/02/03/ 

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/LCVHpTWDFbYJyG789W3L

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1RoYtObqP6LEN0HF6metMH

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-390-recap/id1674626983?i=1000748247314

Argo, LN-Symmetry - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #390 Recap Podcast

bitcoinplusplus

This week in Bitcoin Core

btcpp

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #390 is here:

- summarizes a more efficient approach to garbled circuits
- links to an LN-Symmetry update
- summarizes popular Q&A from Stack Exchange
- Optech Newsletter #390 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/30/

Robin Linus posted to Delving Bitcoin about a new paper by Liam Eagen and Ying Tong Lai describing a technique that will enable 1000 times more efficient garbled locks...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/30/#argo-a-garbled-circuits-scheme-with-more-efficient-off-chain-computation

Gregory Sanders posted an update to Delving Bitcoin about his previous work on LN-Symmetry...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/30/#ln-symmetry-update

Selected Q&A from Bitcoin Stack Exchange
- What is stored in dbcache and with what priority?
- Can one do a coinjoin in Shielded CSV?
- In Bitcoin Core, how to use Tor for broadcasting new transactions only?
- Brassard-Høyer-Tapp (BHT) algorithm and Bitcoin (BIP360)
- Why does BitHash alternate sha256 and ripmed160?
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/30/#selected-qa-from-bitcoin-stack-exchange

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter streaming live on X/Twitter Tuesday at 17:30 UTC.

Garbled circuits, LN-Symmetry, Q&A - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #390

René Pickhardt joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #389:

- A mathematical theory of payment channel networks
- 2 updates to services and client software
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/01/27/

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/QO5rMIVxPbZw1bO6abkj 

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5KACVM4RzIGjsBrgXJ5aAv

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-389-recap/id1674626983?i=1000746907140

Payment channel network theory - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #389 Recap Podcast

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #389 is here:

- links to a paper on the study of payment channel networks
- summarizes changes to services/client software including an Electrum server for testing silent payments and a BDK WASM library
- Optech Newsletter #389 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/23/

René Pickhardt posted to Delving Bitcoin about the publication of his new paper called “A Mathematical Theory of Payment Channel Network”...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/23/#a-mathematical-theory-of-payment-channel-networks

Changes to services and client software:
- Electrum server for testing silent payments
- BDK WASM library
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/23/#changes-to-services-and-client-software

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on http://Riverside.fm Tuesday at 17:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.com/studio/bitcoin-optech

Payment channel network research - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #389

Bruno Garcia joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #388:

- Incremental mutation testing in Bitcoin Core
- BIP process updated
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/01/20/

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/TsQ3V8lAG5hrYWMbmXbn 

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/65vfvLBYDXG6I7scbT5cyO

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-388-recap/id1674626983?i=1000745948643

Mutation testing, BIP3 - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #388 Recap Podcast

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #388 is here:

- links to a discussion of incremental mutation testing in Bitcoin Core
- announces deployment of a new BIP process
- Optech Newsletter #388 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/16/

Bruno Garcia posted to Delving Bitcoin about his current work on improving mutation testing in Bitcoin Core. Mutation testing is a technique that allows developers to assess the effectiveness of their tests by intentionally adding systemic bugs, called mutants, to the codebase...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/16/#an-overview-of-incremental-mutation-testing-in-bitcoin-core

After more than two months of discussion on the mailing list and another round of amendments to the proposal, it became clear this week that BIP3 had achieved rough consensus...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/16/#bip-process-updated

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on http://Riverside.fm Tuesday at 17:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.com/studio/bitcoin-optech

Mutants, Bip process - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #388

Silent payments, Ark - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #387 Recap Podcast

René Pickhardt and Craig Raw joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #387:

- Bitcoin Core wallet migration bug
- Using Ark as a channel factory
- Draft BIP for silent payment descriptors
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/01/13/

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/CxvwArgstb80HNzZWxiC

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6jn03puzikUjsuQD4Bmp21

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-387-recap/id1674626983?i=1000745147513

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #387 is here:

- warns of a wallet migration bug in Bitcoin Core
- summarizes a post about using the Ark protocol as an LN channel factory
- links to a draft BIP for silent payment descriptors
- Optech Newsletter #387 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/09/

Bitcoin Core posted a notice of a bug in the legacy wallet migration feature in versions 30.0 and 30.1...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/09/#bitcoin-core-wallet-migration-bug

René Pickhardt wrote on Delving Bitcoin about his discussions and ideas around whether Ark’s best use case might be as a flexible channel factory rather than as an end-user payment solution...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/09/#using-ark-as-a-channel-factory

Craig Raw posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a proposal for a draft BIP, which defines a new top-level descriptor script expression sp() for silent payments...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/09/#draft-bip-for-silent-payment-descriptors

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on http://Riverside.fm Tuesday at 17:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.com/studio/bitcoin-optech

Wallet bug, Ark, silent payment descriptors - Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #387

Fuzzamoto is a fuzz testing tool for Bitcoin full nodes. For the last year, Niklas Gögge has been building Fuzzamoto with the goal of:

“an external testing suite that gets as close as possible to taking production binaries as input and producing bugs as output”

Part 1 of Brink’s blog series on Fuzzamoto provides an introduction of Fuzzamoto including its motivation, a design overview, and the first bugs found.
https://brink.dev/blog/2026/01/07/fuzzamoto-introduction/

See our previous discussion with Niklas for further background on fuzz testing:
https://brink.dev/blog/2023/07/14/fuzzing/

Fuzzamoto fuzz testing tool for Bitcoin full nodes: Part 1 Introduction

Anthony Towns and Mikhail Kudinov joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #386.

- A notice about the wallet migration bug in Bitcoin Core
- Building a vault using blinded co-signers
- BIP for Peer feature negotiation
- Year 2106 timestamp overflow
- BIP54 timestamp restriction for a timestamp overflow soft fork
- Mitigating a CTV footgun
- CTV activation meeting
- OP_CHECKCONSOLIDATION to enable cheaper consolidations
- Hash-based signatures post-quantum Bitcoin
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2026/01/06/

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/LSYvA10Nd4ToHfmuKhvX

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/21GFU6WOODEv2s9F2NvBtB

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-386-recap/id1674626983?i=1000744026375