schmidty

bitcoin

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #371 is here:

- announces the availability of a workbook dedicated to provable cryptography
- Bitcoin Core 29.1, Eclair v0.13.0, Bitcoin Core 30.0rc1
- Optech Newsletter #371 Podcast

https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/09/12/

Jonas Nick posted to Delving Bitcoin to announce a short workbook he created for a four day event to “teach developers the basics of provable cryptography, […] consisting of cryptographic definitions, propositions, proofs and exercises.”
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/09/12/#provable-cryptography-workbook

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on Riverside.fm Tuesday at 16:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.fm/studio/bitcoin-optech

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #371

Russell O’Connor, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, and Jeremy Rubin join Optech to discuss Newsletter #370:

- Simplicity
- 4 proposed op codes for doing Elliptic Curve Operations in Bitcoin Script
- Draft BIP for OP_TWEAKADD
- and more

You can listen on our website: https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2025/09/09/

Fountain: https://fountain.fm/episode/6IP69xVggsPJ4dZtShuf 

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

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-370-recap/id1674626983?i=1000725872238

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #370 Recap Podcast

@schmidty's bio

I suppose this doesnt help either, but here it is anyway

https://github.com/bitcoinops/bitcoinops.github.io/pull/608/commits/c185556fa1a922d860e4d7f99feb7b8f38ea5f7d

Ill try to remember to drop something in the next pod tomorrow

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #368 Recap Podcast

Apologies this podcast was late due to technical difficulties during the original recording session.

Mark “Murch” Erhardt and Mike Schmidt discussed Newsletter #368:

- the block template sharing draft BIP
- trusted execution environments for soft fork experimentation
- the minrelayfee PR for Bitcoin Core
- 9 interesting ecosystem software updates

You can listen on our website: https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2025/08/26/ 

Fountain: https://fountain.fm/episode/P5UDO600jU5Iva3fHFic 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ZPLyRlgDZvh2kN9WV95pF 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-368-recap/id1674626983?i=1000725591869 


Came across it as part of my authoring this monthly segment for Optech

https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2021/07/21/#lightning-powered-news-site-stacker-news-launches

Stacker Saloon

saloon

Hi, yes its me Mike Schmidt. As part of my publishing the newsletter each Friday, I also post on socials, including stacker news. Hope that is ok.

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #370 is here:

- details the design of Simplicity
- links to a draft BIP for adding elliptic curve operations to tapscript
- describes the draft BIP for OP_TWEAKADD
- Optech Newsletter #370 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/09/05/

Russell O’Connor made three posts so far to Delving Bitcoin about “the philosophy and design of the Simplicity language”...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/09/05/#details-about-the-design-of-simplicity

Olaoluwa Osuntokun posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a link to a draft BIP for adding several opcodes to tapscript that will allow elliptic curve operations to be performed on the script evaluation stack...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/09/05/#draft-bip-for-adding-elliptic-curve-operations-to-tapscript

Jeremy Rubin posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a link a draft BIP to add OP_TWEAKADD to tapscript...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/09/05/#draft-bip-for-op-tweakadd

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on Riverside.fm Tuesday at 16:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.fm/studio/bitcoin-optech

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #370

Bruno Garcia and Liam Eagen joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #369:

- The bitcoinfuzz project
- Garbled Locks for Bitcoin
- Stack exchange questions touching on quantum, obfuscating data on disk and other topics
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2025/09/02/

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/oGMUPbcYR5TSy63a4Zt8

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5uox6htE8nFOVXFc3Ju9Qq

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-369-recap/id1674626983?i=1000724614662

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #369 Recap Podcast

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #369 is here:

- shares an update on differential fuzzing of Bitcoin and LN implementations
- links to a new paper about garbled locks for accountable computing contracts
- summarizes popular Q&A from Stack Exchange
- Optech Newsletter #369 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/29/

Bruno Garcia posted to Delving Bitcoin to describe recent progress and accomplishments of bitcoinfuzz, a library and related data for fuzz testing Bitcoin-based software and libraries...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/29/#update-on-differential-fuzzing-of-bitcoin-and-ln-implementations

Liam Eagen posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list about a paper he’s written about a new mechanism for creating accountable computing contracts but based on garbled circuits...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/29/#garbled-locks-for-accountable-computing-contracts

Selected Q&A from Bitcoin Stack Exchange:
- Is it possible to recover a private key from an aggregate public key under strong assumptions?
- Are all taproot addresses vulnerable to quantum computing?
- Why cant we set the chainstate obfuscation key?
- Is it possible to revoke a spending branch after a block height?
- Configure Bitcoin Core to use onion nodes in addition to IPv4 and IPv6 nodes?
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/29/#selected-qa-from-bitcoin-stack-exchange

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on Riverside.fm Tuesday at 16:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.fm/studio/bitcoin-optech

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #369

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #368 is here:

- summarizes a draft BIP for block template sharing between full nodes
- announces a library that allows trusted delegation of script evaluation
- summarizes changes to services/client software
- Optech Newsletter #368 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/22/

Anthony Towns posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list the draft of a BIP for how nodes can communicate to their peers the transactions they would attempt to mine in their next block...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/22/#draft-bip-for-block-template-sharing

Josh Doman posted to Delving Bitcoin about a library he’s written that uses a trusted execution environment (TEE) that will only sign a taproot keypath spend if the transaction containing that spend satisfies a script...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/22/#trusted-delegation-of-script-evaluation

Changes to services and client software:
- ZEUS v0.11.3 released
- Rust Utreexo resources
- Peer-observer tooling and call to action
- Bitcoin Core Kernel-based node announced
- SimplicityHL released
- LSP plugin for BTCPay Server
- Proto mining hardware and software announced
- Oracle resolution demo using CSFS
- Relai adds taproot support
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/22/#changes-to-services-and-client-software

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on Riverside.fm Tuesday at 16:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.fm/studio/bitcoin-optech

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #368

Mark “Murch” Erhardt and Mike Schmidt discussed Newsletter #367:

- Removing peer discouragement for consensus-invalid transactions
- A per-input cache for sighash pre-computation to the script interpreter
- And more

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2025/08/19/

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/rDxi7POxEBQhwV26KwsQ

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5BrkPRC5Yob7j0aPHegngv

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-367-recap/id1674626983?i=1000722685501 

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #367 Recap Podcast


Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #367 is here:

- LND v0.19.3-beta.rc1
- Bitcoin Core 29.1rc1
- Optech Newsletter #367 Podcast

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on Riverside.fm Tuesday at 16:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.fm/studio/bitcoin-optech


Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #367

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #366 Recap Podcast

You can listen on our website:
https://bitcoinops.org/en/podcast/2025/08/12/

Fountain:
https://fountain.fm/episode/mb22hz065ESbbtqZvMy6

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/58sQEBHrZ5Z22iUID6x5Je

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-optech-newsletter-366-recap/id1674626983?i=1000721833977

Gloria Zhao and Mike Schmidt were joined by Tadge Dryja and Anthony Towns to discuss Newsletter #366:

- Draft BIPs proposed for Utreexo
- Continued discussion about lowering the minimum relay feerate 
- Peer block template sharing to mitigate problems with divergent mempool policies
- A watch only wallet PR Review Club
- And more

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #366 is here:

- announces draft BIPs for Utreexo
- summarizes continued discussion about lowering the minimum transaction relay feerate
- describes a proposal to allow nodes to share their block templates to mitigate problems with divergent mempool policies
- recaps the "Add exportwatchonlywallet RPC to export a watchonly version of a wallet" PR Review Meeting
- includes a recommendation to readers
- issues a correction to last week’s newsletter
- Optech Newsletter #366 Podcast

Calvin Kim posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list to announce three draft BIPs co-authored by him along with Tadge Dryja and Davidson Souza about the Utreexo validation model...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/08/#draft-bips-proposed-for-utreexo

Gloria Zhao posted to Delving Bitcoin about lowering the default minimum relay feerate by 90% to 0.1 sat/vbyte...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/08/#continued-discussion-about-lowering-the-minimum-relay-feerate

Anthony Towns posted to Delving Bitcoin to suggest full node peers occasionally send each other their current template for the next block using compact block relay encoding...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/08/#peer-block-template-sharing-to-mitigate-problems-with-divergent-mempool-policies

Add exportwatchonlywallet RPC to export a watchonly version of a wallet is a PR by achow101 that reduces the amount of manual work required to create a watch-only wallet...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/08/#bitcoin-core-pr-review-club

Bitcoin++ Insider has begun publishing reader-funded news about technical Bitcoin topics. Two of their free weekly newsletters, Last Week in Bitcoin and This Week in Bitcoin Core, may be especially interesting to regular readers of the Optech newsletter...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/08/#optech-recommends

In last week’s newsletter, we incorrectly described the updated version of BIP360, pay to quantum-resistant hash, as “making exactly the change” that Tim Ruffing showed was secure in his recent paper...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/08/#correction

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on Riverside.fm Tuesday at 16:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.fm/studio/bitcoin-optech

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #366

Russell O’Connor joined Brink engineers to explain his work on formal verification of software, the process of mathematically proving that a program satisfies its specification.

- Overview of formal verification of software
- Walkthrough w/ libsecp256k1
- Coq, Rocq, Clightgen
- SafeGCD
- Q&A

Russell O'Connor on formal verification and libsecp256k1

David Gumberg, Lauren Shareshian, Jameson Lopp, Steven Roose, and Tim Ruffing joined Optech to discuss Newsletter #365:

- Compact block prefilling 
- Mempool-based fee estimation
- Migration from quantum-vulnerable outputs 
- The OP_TEMPLATEHASH proposal 
- Proposal to allow longer relative timelocks
- Security against quantum computers with taproot as a commitment scheme 
- And more


Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #365 Recap Podcast

Bitcoin Optech newsletter #365 is here:

- summarizes the results of a test of compact block relay prefilling
- links to a mempool-based fee estimation library
- migration from quantum-vulnerable outputs
- taproot-native OP_TEMPLATEHASH proposal
- proposal to allow longer relative timelocks
- security against quantum computers with taproot as a commitment scheme
- Optech Newsletter #365 Podcast
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/01/

David Gumberg replied to a Delving Bitcoin thread about compact block reconstruction efficiency with a summary of the results he obtained testing compact block relay prefilling—a node pre-emptively relaying some or all transactions in a new block to its peers when it thinks the peers may not already have those transactions...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/01/#testing-compact-block-prefilling

Lauren Shareshian posted to Delving Bitcoin to announce a library for fee estimation developed by Block...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/01/#mempool-based-fee-estimation-library

Jameson Lopp posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a three-step proposal for phasing out spending from quantum-vulnerable outputs...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/01/#migration-from-quantum-vulnerable-outputs

Greg Sanders posted to Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a proposal to add three opcodes to tapscript...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/01/#taproot-native-op-templatehash-proposal

Developer Pyth posted to Delving Bitcoin to suggest allowing BIP68 relative timelocks to be extended from their current maximum of about one year to a new maximum of about ten years...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/01/#proposal-to-allow-longer-relative-timelocks

Tim Ruffing posted a link to a paper he wrote analyzing the security of taproot commitments against manipulation by quantum computers...
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2025/08/01/#security-against-quantum-computers-with-taproot-as-a-commitment-scheme

Bitcoin Optech will host an audio recap discussion of this newsletter on Riverside.fm Tuesday at 16:30 UTC. Join us to discuss or ask questions!
https://riverside.fm/studio/bitcoin-optech