I’m joined by guests Stephan Livera, Pierre Rochard, Justin Moon and Matt Odell to go through the list. To send Bitcoin related questions, just go to bitcoin.review and click submit story at the top right.

Listen on your favorite podcast app:

Coinkite housekeeping

  • 00:01:18 Bitcoin Black Friday asking for product/services submissions
  • 00:01:43 Asking for Podcast topics for a panel like the Wallet episode
  • 00:01:52 [BitcoinBinary.org] bot not working well, looking for volunteers

Software Releases & Project Updates

  • 00:03:33 Fully Noded v0.3.4/v0.3.5 - Sep 29, 2022
    • v0.3.4
      • Total balance view no longer refreshes when navigating back
      • Join market connect QR codes are now exportable
      • Added join market placeholders to the ssl cert text field in node details
      • Enhancement: In older versions, multisig NFC import not offered if a MicroSD card was
    • v0.3.5
      • much improved UX around exporting and scanning Quickconnect QR codes to add different node types
      • fixes a bug where LND would only show fees collected from the last 100 HTLC events
  • 00:05:10 Specter Desktop v1.13.0 - Sep 22, 2022
    • Feature: Improve Dev-Console #1850 (k9ert)
    • Feature: Menu extensions can extend menus #1648 (k9ert)
    • UIUX: Adding “Open Bitcoin app” verbiage to Ledger Upload Keys page #1868 (wombat6)
    • UIUX: Better balance display #1841 (relativisticelectron)
    • UIUX: Do not hide elements by default #1854 (relativisticelectron)
    • UIUX: Individual HWI progess for Ledger devices #1864 (Manolis Mandrapilias)
  • 00:07:04 Nunchuk 1.9.14 - Sep 27, 2022
    • COLDCARD NFC support
    • Replace-by-fee (RBF) ported to mobile
    • BIP21 & Krux QR support
    • New “Quick Send” shortcut
    • Signing using airgapped keys in collab wallets
    • Copy-to-clipboard for addresses & TXIDs
    • Perf improvements
  • 00:13:29 Electrum 4.3.2 - (Sep 26, 2022)
    • When creating new requests, reuse addresses of expired requests.
    • Index requests by ID instead of receiving address. This affects thefollowing commands: get_request, get_invoice, list_requests, list_invoices, delete_request, delete_invoice.
    • Trampoline routing: remember routes that have failed. Try other routes instead of systematically raising tampoline fees
    • Fix sweep to_local output from channel backup.
    • Harden build script for macOS binary: avoid using precompiled wheels from PyPI for most packages (#7918)
    • The Windows/AppImage/Android binaries are now built on debian using the snapshot.debian.org archive instead of ubuntu. This should help with historical reproducibility.
  • 00:20:02 Fountain 0.5.1 - Sep 30, 2022
    • Autoplay Queue - add episodes to your queue and enjoy continuous playback.
    • Apple CarPlay - iOS users can enjoy your podcasts while you’re on the road (Android Auto is in the final stages of testing and will be released very soon).
    • OPML Import - Android users can now import their podcast library from other apps via OPML.
    • Performance Upgrades - significantly improved crashing and overheating.
  • 00:24:38 Robosats v0.2.1-alpha - Sep 30, 2022
    • This patch includes the new BookTable component.
    • This is the first alpha release with an Android APK for testing.
  • 00:25:18 COLDCARD 5.0.7 - Oct 05, 2022
    • NFC Enhancements:
      • Multisig NFC import
      • NFC message signing
      • Show address over NFC
    • HSM Enhancements:
      • Dynamic HSM Whitelisting.
      • HSM policy hash displayed during first activation and in the HSM status response.
      • Ignores HSM commands over USB, by default.
    • Enhancements:
      • Menu Wrapping
      • Allow import of new descriptor type which specifies both internal/external in single string.
      • Add ability to specify address format in text file to be signed
  • 00:26:53 EmbassyOS v0.3.2 - Oct 05, 2022
    • Autoscrolling for logs
    • Improved connectivity between browser and Embassy
    • Switch to Postgres for EOS database for better performance
    • Multiple bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements
    • Various UI/UX enhancements
    • Removal of product keys
  • 00:36:12 Blockstream Green QT 1.1.4 - Oct 05, 2022
    • Support for incremental Jade firmware update
    • Enable Request Two-Factor Reset for liquid
  • 00:38:59 lnd v0.15.2-beta - Oct 10, 2022
    • A large 998 of 999 tapscript multisig transaction broke LND nodes yesterday, causing them to fall out of sync with the chain.
    • Emergency hot fix release to fix a bug that can cause lnd nodes to be unable to parse certain large blocks.
  • 00:49:19 Samurai v0.99.98f
    • New PayNym Bot & Toolbar Menu.
    • Authenticate using PayNym. Sign in to websites without an email or password, simply scan a QR code.
    • A brand new UI for both initiating and collaborating in STONEWALLx2 or Stowaway transaction.
    • New Joinbot. For a small spam prevention fee you can have JoinBot act as the second participant in a STONEWALLx2 collaborative transaction.
    • There is a small anti-spam fee in addition to the usual miner fees when using JoinBot. The service fee is set at 3.5% of the send amount or 0.01 BTC, whichever is less.
    • New ‘tools’ screen in the wallet activated from the new Toolbar Menu contains new UI for sweeping private keys and calculating addresses for your wallet.

Noteworthy

  • 00:50:42 Jam: a modern interface for JoinMarket
  • 00:53:33 BitcoinTreasuries.net
    • New website launch, data driven and charts
  • 00:55:50 Stratum V2 reference implementation (SRI) available for pilot testing.
    • Next generation protocol for pooled mining.
    • Increases security, makes data transfers more efficient, and reduces mining infrastructure requirements.
    • Introduces three new sub-protocols that let miners select transaction sets and improve decentralization by negotiating with pools.
  • 01:01:23 Pleb creates a 2 of 3 multi-sig, air-gapped Vault with COLDCARD, Ledger & TAPSIGNER using Keeper
  • 01:05:31 The Guatemalan Lake Town Mining Bitcoin With Used Cooking Oil
    • Inspired by El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach, a town in Guatemala is focused on cleaning its lake by diverting used cooking oil to bitcoin miners.
  • 01:09:12 Peach - P2P Mobile application that connects Bitcoin Buyers & Sellers.
  • 01:12:27 Celsius Disclosed Names and Transaction History of All Users During Bankruptcy
    • Court filing totals 14000 pages.
    • Data includes names, trading history, transaction times, and amounts.
    • This data can be combined with on chain data to connect self custody wallets with any Celsius user that interacted with them.
    • Celsius asked for the names of its users to be hidden from the court filings, but the judge refused saying this is a common requirement for bankruptcy cases.
    • Celsius founder Mashinsky withdrew $10 MILLION from the firm weeks before freezing customer accounts and declaring bankruptcy - Financial Times
  • 01:25:13 Alby - The Bitcoin Lightning App for your Browser
    • Alby brings Bitcoin payments to the web with in-browser payments and identity, all with your own wallet.
    • Content Monetization - Send and receive payments on websites, Twitter or YouTube and other social media platforms.
    • Passwordless logins - Authenticate with a Bitcoin Lightning wallet. No need to remember a username or password.
  • 01:31:07 Arrested Tornado Cash developer to stay in jail after appeal rejected
    • Arrested Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev’s appeal has been dismissed and he will stay in jail until at least late November, his wife tells The Block.
    • The wife, Ksenia Malik, also fears all of Pertsev’s property will be seized and auctioned.
  • 01:38:26 Grayscale unveils bitcoin mining-centered investment entity
    • Grayscale is launching Grayscale Digital Infrastructure Opportunities, a “private, co-investment opportunity in mining hardware that powers the bitcoin ecosystem.”
    • The company is partnering with digital asset mining and staking infrastructure firm Foundry, which will manage day-to-day operations.
  • 01:38:42 European Union Announces New Sanctions Against Russia Including a “Ban” on All Russian Bitcoin Wallets
    • “The existing prohibitions on crypto assets have been tightened by banning all crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services, irrespective of the amount of the wallet (previously up to €10,000 was allowed).”
  • 01:43:07 bitnob launches in Kenya
    • Kenya makes it the third country the Bitnob app is available in, following Nigeria and Ghana.
    • After a one-time setup on the app users can transfer between lightning wallets and M-Pesa without any further action by the recipient. They can choose to receive bitcoin or local currency.
    • Bitnob is known for its bitcoin savings feature which helps people to automatically save in bitcoin using the dollar cost average strategy. The savings feature will give Kenyans the opportunity to save their bitcoin for 3, 6, or 12 months depending on their preferences.
    • Bitnob’s payout feature helps to make it easy for Kenyans to receive bitcoin directly into their bitcoin wallet, their USD wallet, or split between both wallets. This is quite an innovative feature giving Kenyans the freedom to choose how they would like to receive their bitcoin.
    • You can receive money from your family using Cash App or Strike in the US straight to your mobile money account.
    • You can also now send money from Kenya to Nigeria or Ghana or send money from any of these countries to Kenya.
    • Kenya is among the top 10 countries interested in cryptocurrency. According to reports, Kenya is a country interested in bitcoin, topping bitcoin search interest at 94.7%.
  • 01:44:45 Swan Acquires Specter Solutions
    • Specter project will remain open source.
    • Swan will provide engineering support and some product direction.
    • Specter’s open source desktop project will not have any default network connections to Swan or customer identification (KYC) features.
    • Launching Specter Labs - a division of Swan focusing on open source and privacy-oriented tools that help Bitcoiners secure their holdings.
    • Will give Swan customers end-to-end services by providing deep integrations with Specter’s leading self-custody solution and other tools over time.
    • Specter desktop client will continue to be usable with complete independence from Swan, or in conjunction with it, per the user’s preference.
  • 01:47:49 Block’s Decentralized Exchange Protocol Team ‘TBD’ Partners with Circle
    • TBD and Circle are collaborating on a set of open standards and open source technologies aimed at enabling global-scale, mainstream adoption of digital currency in payments and financial applications. The first step of which will support cross-border remittances and self-custody wallets that can hold stablecoins.
    • Supporting USDC with an eye on a number of use cases that make it easy for developers to build on top of Block’s tbDEX protocol and its Web5 decentralized identity platform.
    • Use cases include:
      • Ubiquitous global on-and-off-ramps that connect traditional payments rails to digital assets, making it easier and more accessible for consumers and businesses around the world to benefit from the crypto economy.
      • Faster, lower cost remittances globally – starting from the U.S. to Mexico.
      • Self-custody wallets that can hold stablecoins – U.S. dollar denominated stablecoins – to provide a store of value to individuals in countries who must balance limited access to U.S. dollars with hyperinflationary environments.
  • 01:48:20 BitGo Unveils Custodial Lightning
    • BitGo is taking the next step in the evolution of Bitcoin scalability by introducing a new custodial Lightning service.
    • Custodial Lightning allows BitGo customers to get up and running quickly and seamlessly integrate the Lightning network into their applications or services.
    • BitGo takes care of running the Lightning node and automatically maintains the liquidity of the payment channels connecting the node with the rest of the network.
    • By removing the complexity of maintaining the infrastructure needed to interact with the Lightning network, BitGo makes it a simple, straightforward process for clients to leverage instant Bitcoin payments just as easily as any traditional payment processing system.
  • 01:48:52 River Lightning Services
    • API for enabling Bitcoin Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals
    • Partnered with Chivo wallet
  • 01:52:06 Bitcoin mining hosting company Compute North files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
    • The company claimed that “after any administrative expenses are paid, no funds will be available for distribution to unsecured creditors.”
    • Among Compute North’s list of clients are some of the biggest bitcoin mining companies, including Marathon. The two companies also closed an additional 42-megawatts hosting deal in July.
    • Based on the information available at this time, it is our understanding that this filing will not impact our current mining operations,” a Marathon spokesperson said.

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter

  • #219 - Sep 28, 2022:
    • 01:53:56 Bitcoin implementation designed for testing soft forks on signet:
      • Anthony Towns posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a description of a fork of Bitcoin Core he’s working on that will only operate on the default signet and which will enforce rules for soft fork proposals with high-quality specifications and implementations. This should make it simpler for users to experiment with the proposed change, including directly comparing one change to another similar change (e.g. comparing OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY to SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT).

Competitions

  • 01:55:14 Bitcoin Design Community Designathon [Oct 12 - 23]
    • “Imagine a traditional hackathon, but this time focused only on design”
    • The designathon will happen in coordination with the Bolt.fun Legends of Lightning tournament, and we are working on coordinating with the TABConf Builder Day
  • 01:56:59 Legends of Lightning [12 Oct - 7 Dec]
    • Online global tournament for makers to learn, connect, collaborate, and build innovative applications and tools with bitcoin and lightning. Makers can accelerate their bitcoin projects through mentorship in design, development, and lightning integration.
    • Forming teams to hack on new or existing projects, makers can show off their progress, activity, and updates as they #BuildInPublic - competing for up to ~$60,000 (3 BTC) in prizes.

Events

Episode submission ideas

  • We’re looking for ideas for interesting panel conversations. To send Bitcoin related questions, just go to bitcoin.review and follow the contact links at the bottom of the page.

Get in touch with the pod

Did I get anything wrong above? Help me correct it producer@coinkite.com