I’m joined by guests Craig Raw, Lyn Alden & Ben Carman go through the list.

Listen on your favorite podcast app:

Housekeeping

Software Releases & Project Updates

  • 00:02:27 Sparrow 1.7.2
    • Add Taproot support on Bitcoin Core using the new Cormorant library utilizing descriptor wallets (requires Bitcoin Core v24 or later)
    • Show a Lifehash for the wallet’s master fingerprint in the Settings tab and Passphrase dialog
    • Implement BIP329 for importing and exporting wallet labels (Wallet Import and Export dialogs)
    • Add full support for Tapsigner as a hardware wallet (initialize, import, backup, change pin, message and transaction signing)
    • Add support for sending to, sweeping and re-initialized a Satscard (Send tab Pay to dropdown and Tools > Sweep Private Key)
    • Upgrade to HWI 2.2.0 (@achow101)
    • Add support for entering empty passphrases on Trezor One
    • Add Jade multisig export to wallet Export dialog
    • Add support for private key sweeping using Bitcoin Core with Cormorant (requires Bitcoin Core v24 or later)
    • Add https protocol to support Bitcoin Core connections over TLS
    • Add note on disabling derivation path validation to keystore help tooltip
    • 1.7.3
    • Bitcoin Secure Multisig Setup (BSMS) import and export (we can chat about hardware wallet support for BIP129)
    • Configure an external block explorer to view transactions
    • Clearer UX around BIP39 passphrases (specifically, Sparrow is warning the user before enabling a passphrase on a BIP39 wallet, due to continued misunderstanding around what a passphrase is and does)
  • 00:09:57 Mk4: Version 5.1.0 (Feb 27, 2023)
    • New Feature: “MicroSD card as Second Factor”. Specially marked MicroSD card must be already inserted when (true) PIN is entered, or else seed is wiped. Add, remove and check cards in menu: Settings -> Login Settings -> MicroSD 2FA
    • New Feature: Import TAPSIGNER encrypted backup as main or ephemeral seed, for PSBT signing.
    • New Feature: Detached Bitcoin signature files (most exports)
      • Files exported are now signed with a detached signature. Look for a .sig file with the same name, and verify signature with your favourite Bitcoin tools. See “Signed Exports” in docs/msg-signing.md fo more information.
      • Coldcard can now verify signed files:
        • SD card and Virtual disk Advanced/Tools -> File Management -> Verify Sig File
        • NFC Advanced/Tools -> NFC Tools -> Verify Sig File
    • Address Explorer:
      • Enhancement: Application-specific derivation paths in Address Explorer -> Applications
      • Bugfix: Change value was ignored when generating addresses file
    • Import Enhancements:
      • Add import multisig wallet via Virtual Disk
      • Add import extended private key via Virtual Disk and via NFC
      • Import seed in compact/truncated form (just 3-4 letters of each seed word)
      • Import extended private key as ephemeral seed
    • Export Enhancements:
      • Samourai POST-MIX and PRE-MIX descriptor export options added
      • Lily Wallet added
      • Ability to export all supported wallets via NFC (instead of SD card only)
      • Change electrum export file name from ‘new-wallet.json’ to ‘new-electrum.json’
      • Allow export of Wasabi skeleton for Bitcoin Regtest.
    • Backup Enhancement:
      • Option to save the backup file’s encryption password for next backup. Then next backup is quick and simple: no need to record yet another 12 words.
    • Enhancement: During seed generation from dice rolls, enforce at least 50 rolls for 12 word seeds, and 99 rolls for 24 word seeds. Statistical distribution check
    • Enhancement: Single signature wallet generic descriptor export Advanced -> Export Wallet -> Descriptor. Both new format with internal/external in one descriptor <0;1> and standard with two descriptors are supported. added to prevent users from generating low-entropy seeds by rolling same value repeatedly.
    • Bugfix: Offer import/export from/to Virtual Disk in UI even if SD Card is inserted.
    • Bugfix: Recalculate extended key saved in settings upon chain change (BTC, XTN, XRT).
    • Bugfix: Provide correct derivation path (m/84’/1’/0’) for testnet Wasabi export.
    • Bugfix: Properly display UX checkmark only if testnet (XTN, XRT) is enabled in Settings- > Danger Zone -> Testnet Mode.
    • Docs: Add docs/rolls12.py script for verifying dice rolls math for 12 word seeds.
    • Bugfix: v5.1.0 would not install over MicroSD; 5.1.1 was made to replace it.
  • 00:14:57 Nunchuk iOS v1.9.21 / Android v1.9.26
    • Added buffer period for inheritance claiming (7- or 30-day options)
    • Made Iron Hand compatible with other hardware types
    • Enabled density slider (High, Medium, Low) when displaying QR codes
    • Enabled auto-focus when scanning QR codes
  • 00:21:32 Trezor-Suite v23.2.1
    • Improvement: Ensure new change address is created when previous transaction is not confirmed
    • Bug fix: Replace by fee in Taproot
    • Coinjoin: Preparation for extended testing on Bitcoin testnet
  • 00:21:43 Zeus v0.7.3-beta2 (pre-release)
    • QRCodeScanner: import QR code images from gallery
    • Biometrics login
    • Channels: view pending and closed
    • Channels: force close channel timer display
    • Fast node switching
    • LNURL-auth: LNDHub: compatibility mode for Alby and BlueWallet
  • 00:26:09 Mutiny Wallet
  • 00:31:47 Liana v0.2: now with multisig!
    • The second beta release of Liana brings various fixes as well as the possibility to use a multisig in either, or both, of the spending paths.
    • Multisig: we now support descriptors with multiple keys both in the primary (non-timelocked) spending path and the recovery (timelocked) path.
    • GUI-specific
    • You can now import and update Spend transaction drafts as PSBTs to collaboratively create and sign transactions.
    • When creating a new descriptor you can now set an alias for each key. Those will be displayed when inspecting a transaction’s signatories.
    • Amounts are now displayed with the sats in bold for better redability.
  • 00:32:39 Breez
    • iOS 1.0.18
    • Neutrino sync over http
    • Added German translation
    • Changed scan library
    • Fixed episode ID in TLV
    • Various bug fixes
    • SDK Launched
    • modules: Signer, InputParser, LightningNode, BTCSwapper, FiatCurrencies, LSP
    • sdk-core: the core SDK rust library.
    • sdk-bindings: ffi bindings for Kotlin & Swift.
    • sdk-flutter: a flutter plugin (includes ffi bindings for dart).
    • sdk-react-native: a react-native plugin.
    • Use cases:
    • Streaming payments for streaming content
    • Monetizing social media
    • In-game currencies
    • Cross-border remittances
    • Disintermediated P2P payments and fintech
  • 00:36:13 Blixt
    • Added the ability to restore with passphrase (25th word)
    • Add the ability to change language on the welcome screen
    • Bug fixes
    • Fixed notifications not working on Android 13
    • Fixed a bug where the “Force close” button would appear when restoring channels via SCB
    • Fixed QR code not working for Keysend Experiment
    • Fixed camera not working for Keysend Experiment
  • 00:36:24 MyNode v0.3.10 (Feb 2, 2023)
    • Add ability to swap versions of Bitcoin
    • Add ability to run Bitcoin Ordisrespector
  • 00:38:14 Jam (Web Interface for JoinMarket) v0.1.5
    • New: Quickly freeze/unfreeze UTXOs in the jar detail view
    • New: The scheduler now has a success screen
    • New: Expired Fidelity Bonds can finally be spent again
    • New: Jars will display the total amount of sats in them
    • Fixed: Bug related to setting the minimum relative fee
    • Fixed: You can now set the minimum fee to 1sat/vbyte
  • 00:38:45 Keeper v1.0.1 (iOS)
    • Now Trezor and BitBox 02 support available via web socket
    • Change the density of QR if the camera is not able to scan the QR
    • Import multisig using configuration details (Output Descriptors, BSMS, etc.) - only for supported configurations
  • 00:43:36 Blockstream Jade
    • 0.1.43 (2023-02-10)
    • Added
    • Facilitate bip39 passphrases made up only of wordlist words
    • Add option to calculate the final bip39 mnemonic word
    • Support sign-message via QR (eg. Specter)
    • Add wallet ‘logout’ option to lock hw unit
  • 00:44:12 Seed Signer v0.6.0 The “Two More Weeks™” Release Latest
    • SeedSigner OS (custom Linux operating system)
    • Remove microSD after start-up
    • Networking/BT/swap/usb removed from kernel
    • Deployment image is ~100x smaller
    • Build from scratch with minimal commands
    • Single/multisig receive/change address explorer
    • BIP-85 deterministic seed derivation
    • Support for p2tr (taproot) signing
    • Compact SeedQR now enabled by default
    • More responsive QR dismissal
    • MicroSD removal & reinsertion notification
    • Keeper coordinator option added (disabled by default)
    • Various other UI tweaks & minor bugfixes
  • 00:45:01 Cashu v0.9.3
    • P2N (Pay-to-nostr) NIP-05 support. Makes it super easy to send ecash to other nostr users.
  • 00:45:32 Alby v1.27.0 ✍🏿 Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365
    • This release adds a new window.nostr.signSchnorr function. This allows web apps to request signatures from the Nostr key not only for Nostr events but any data. Opening up a whole new world of possible things that can be connected to user’s Nostr key.
    • Added zaps
    • Alby on mobile:
    • Alby makes its first steps in the mobile world.
    • You can already connect your Alby account to Zeus or BlueWallet on mobile.
    • With the latest release, the Alby Browser Extension is now available on the Kiwi browser for Android.
    • Bitcoin stablecoin wallet
    • You can now use a stable bitcoin wallet in the Alby Browser Extension by creating and connecting a Kollider account.
  • 00:46:11 Fountain v0.6.4
    • Search Editorial: New Search page design which allows listeners to browse a selection of new and noteworthy podcasts with large imagery
    • Improved clip activity and discovery
  • 00:47:18 Damus v1.1.0-9
    • Customized zaps
    • New Notifications View
    • Bookmarking
  • 00:54:38 TORQ (Node management tool for large lightning network nodes)
    • v0.18.18
    • Tags
    • Channel views can now be renamed via the title
    • Added filterable columns to Channel view
    • Tag sorting
    • Naviation & Inspection
    • Easily navigate & inspect channels with a new pop-out modal.
    • You can also inspect channels directly from the flow diagram on the homepage.
    • UI
    • New default views on channel and forwards tabs help you gain visibility & make decisions.
    • v0.16.3
    • Organize your routing node with tags
    • You can use tags to label a channel or a node, i.e, “Sink”, “Exchange”, “Wallet”…etc
    • You can also create your own custom tags!
  • 00:54:51 Fedimint Federated mining pools
  • 00:56:22 Habla.news 0.21
    • Bounty claimed for a Nostr-based Medium/Substack (long form) replacement
    • Select relays for note publishing
    • Comment threads (kind 1)
    • Full NIP-19 support (link to any nostr content)
  • 00:58:47 BIP47 on Stack Wallet v1.5.44

Boosts

  • 01:00:41 Thanks to everyone who streamed sats, and shoutout to our top boosters:
    • @purpleelephant (250,000 sats) “best one yet (ords & inscriptions)”
    • @erik99 (50,000 sats) “stay humble, stack sats”
    • @jcdenton (21,777 sats) “Absolutely fantastic pod wirh a great panel. I learned a lot!”
    • @michaelmatulef (21,000 sats) “Absolutely great episode”
    • @lawofbitcoin (20,000 sats) “Appreciate you”
    • @apemithrandir (15,554 sats) “double boost. OP Vault make security good. also shoutout to Stack Wallet for being the first wallet to offer PayNyms on iOS (even if they are a multi-coin wallet).”
    • @tomzarebczan (8,880 sats) “i can listen to nvk talk all day. keep it up the great show!”
    • @petar (5,555 sats) “Eye opening interview to understand what Inscriptions and Ordinals actually means to Bitcoin. We are getting a preview of what a hyperbitcoinization full-block fee market is going to look like. This is a good thing.”
    • @davesmith (5,000 sats) “great show, I learned a lot”
    • @barnminer (5,000 sats) “Good converation NVK. Throwing some sats since your not a beleiever in V4V. Still not a fan of your BlockCock Micro.”

Project spotlight

  • 01:02:08 blastr by MutinyWallet: A nostr cloudflare workers proxy relay that publishes to all known online relays.
  • 01:03:28 bitcoin-waila by MutinyWallet: A tool for decoding bitcoin-related strings.
  • 01:04:23 checkmsg.org - Bitcoin Message Verifier by Coinkite
  • 01:04:27 Rust Coldcard Interface Project
  • 01:04:38 labelbase.space
    • Labelbase is a label management service for Bitcoin transactions and addresses.
    • Labelbase provides features for adding labels, importing and exporting labels, and offers a public API for integration with wallets and existing workflows, ensuring that you always have access to the most up-to-date information.
    • Key features:
    • Import and conversion into BIP-329 labels
    • Online label management
    • BIP-329 export
    • REST API for wallet and workflow integration
    • Secure login w/o email and with 2FA
    • Labelbase Supports BIP-329, a format for unifying label data.
  • 01:06:29 LNsat.me
    • A website where you get lightning addresses with different names and connect them directly to your node.
  • 01:06:40 TurinPay
    • A full API solution to let merchants (off and online) to receive bitcoin payments in real time, and free, forever.
  • 01:06:49 BIP324
    • BIP324 proposes a new Bitcoin P2P transport protocol, which features opportunistic encryption, a mild bandwidth reduction, and the ability to negotiate upgrades before exchanging application messages.
  • 01:08:38 Bitnob Launches Virtual Dollar Card
    • Twitter Announcement - Feb 14, 2023
    • No card creation and card maintenance fees
    • You can spend up to $10,000 monthly on your card and top-up $2500 at once.
    • Card activation is instant
    • You can withdraw from your card at any time Techcabal Article - Feb 20, 2023
    • In 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria restricted the use of naira debit cards to $20 per month for international transactions, thereafter, they restricted all international transactions to only dollar cards issued by local banks
    • The Bitnob virtual dollar card solves this and is a game-changer for anyone who has to make regular international payments. Users no longer have to worry about card restrictions set by the Central Bank

News & Noteworthy

  • 01:08:48 The Breez Open-LSP Model
  • 01:14:16 Wallet of Satoshi processed over 150,000 LN payments last week.
  • 01:14:25 BTCPayServer adds Wasabi Wallet’s CoinJoin coordination protocol for All Merchants Announcement
  • 01:15:09 Fedimint Hackathon Winners Announced
    • First place:
    • Prize: 210 million satoshis and help with supporting the module in the Fedi product.
    • Stability Pools: A module to add “stability pool” functionality to Fedimint. The stability pool allows users to “lock” in the US dollar value of their ecash for a fee. This feature is targeted towards users who are not willing to tolerate bitcoin’s price volatility, but still wish to utilize Fedimint and the wider Bitcoin financial system.
    • Runners up (Prizes of 21 million satoshis)
    • Proofimint: A module to automatically create a proof-of-reserves transaction as funds are pegged in and out. This transaction proves that the federation is fully reserved.
    • Fedimint Smol File System: A high-availability key-value storage system meant for small files, backed by a fedimint such as critical configuration details, passwords and multisig setups.
    • Storagemint: Fedimint storage-module adds the capability of storing files for users to back-up images, videos, documents.
    • Honorable Mention (Prize of 2.1 million satoshis)
    • Fedimint Pocket: Description: Fedimint Pocket - A way to custody, manage and storage any type of data using Fedimint.
  • 01:23:15 Nostr mobile clients Nozzle, Daisy and Amethyst all went live this month.
  • 01:23:23 Bitcoin hackers Mastodon is no more
  • 01:24:05 Qala Africa announce a strategic partnership with @nodl_it and @BoltObserver
    • Goal is to educate the next wave of Bitcoin & Lightning Developers across Africa
  • 01:24:15 Cashu Tutorial - Chaumian Ecash On Bitcoin BTC Sessions
  • 01:24:30 WYOMING LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL PROTECTING BITCOIN PRIVATE KEYS FROM COURTS Bitcoin Magazine
    • The bill states that, “No person shall be compelled to produce a private key or make a private key known to any other person in any civil, criminal, administrative, legislative or other proceeding in this state that relates to a digital asset, digital identity or other interest or right to which the private key provides access unless a public key is unavailable or unable to disclose the requisite information with respect to the digital asset, digital identity or other interest or right.”
  • 01:24:42 Bitcoin Core quality assurance and testing maintainer Marco Falke Steps Down Announcement
  • 01:28:32 Lightning node, Lndhub.io, where BlueWallet provides Lightning wallets to its users is shutting down on April 30th Blog Post
    • While you can still withdraw your sats, creating new or refilling existing Lightning wallets on LndHub node will no longer be possible.
    • TL;DR: If you have sats on BlueWallet’s lightning node, please move them as soon as possible.
  • 01:29:00 CashApp Users Bought $7.11 Billion Worth of Bitcoin in 2022 Shareholder Letter
  • 01:29:25 BITCOIN MINING FIRMS HUT 8 AND US BITCOIN CORP. ANNOUNCE MERGER Bitcoin Magazine
    • The merged company will have access to 825 MW energy, including infrastructure operations with renewable and zero-emission energy sources.
  • 01:29:35 UK COURT RULES CRAIG WRIGHT HAS NO COPYRIGHT CLAIM ON BITCOIN Bitcoin Magazine
  • 01:29:46 CRYPTO EXCHANGE KRAKEN SETTLES WITH SEC OVER UNREGISTERED STAKING SERVICES Bitcoin Magazine
    • The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Kraken with failing to register their crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.
  • 01:31:44 EL SALVADOR TO OPEN A BITCOIN EMBASSY IN TEXAS Bitcoin Magazine
    • After opening its first Bitcoin Embassy in Lugano, Switzerland, El Salvador is opening a second one in Texas.
  • 01:31:48 BITCOIN NFTS PROTOCOL ORDINALS SURPASSES 100,000 INSCRIPTIONS Bitcoin Magazine
    • Just five days after reaching 50,000 inscriptions, Bitcoiners using the Ordinals protocol have now inscribed more than 100,000 pieces of data onto the Bitcoin blockchain.
    • Since the project’s launch in January 2023, a seemingly endless stream of pictures, audio files and PDFs have been uploaded.

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter

  • 239
    • Draft BIP for OP_VAULT:
    • James O’Beirne posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a link to a draft BIP for the OP_VAULT opcode.
    • He also announced that he’ll be attempting to get the code merged into Bitcoin Inquisition, a project for testing major proposed changes to Bitcoin’s consensus and network protocol rules.
    • LN quality of service flag discussed:
    • Joost Jager posted to the Lightning-Dev mailing list a proposal to allow nodes to signal that a channel is “highly available”, indicating that its operator believes it’ll be able to forward payments without failure
    • Feedback requested on LN good neighbor scoring
    • Carla Kirk-Cohen and Clara Shikhelman posted to the Lightning-Dev mailing list to request feedback on the recommend parameters for how a node should judge whether its channel counterparties are a good source of forwarded payments.
    • Proposed BIP for Codex32 seed encoding scheme:
    • Russell O’Connor and Andrew Poelstra (using anagrams of their names) proposed a BIP for a new scheme backing up and restoring BIP32 seeds. Similar to SLIP39, it optionally allows creating several shares using Shamir’s Secret Sharing Scheme (SSSS), requiring that a configurable number of the shares to be used together to recover the seed.
    • An attacker who obtains less than the threshold number of shares will learn nothing about the seed
  • 238
    • Continued discussion about block chain data storage
    • Offchain coin coloring:
    • Anthony Towns posted a summary of a protocol currently being used for assigning special meaning to certain transaction outputs, a class of techniques generally called coin coloring.
    • He also summarized a related protocol used for storing encoded binary data in Bitcoin transactions and associating it with particular colored coins.
    • After summarizing the current state of affairs, he described a method for storing data using the nostr message transfer protocol and associating it with colored coins that could be transferred in Bitcoin transactions
    • Fee dilution in multiparty protocols:
    • Yuval Kogman posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list the description of an attack against certain multiparty protocols.
    • Although the attack was previously described, Kogman’s post brought renewed attention to it.
    • Tapscript signature malleability
    • Developer Russell O’Connor noted that signatures for a tapscript can be applied to a copy of the tapscript placed elsewhere in the taproot tree.
    • That means that even if Mallory provides Bob with a valid witness for her tapscript spend before Bob provides his own signature, it’s still possible for Mallory to broadcast an alternative version of the transaction with a larger witness. Bob can only prevent this issue by receiving from Mallory a complete copy of her tree of tapscripts.
    • In the context of future soft fork upgrades to Bitcoin, Anthony Towns opened an issue to the Bitcoin Inquisition repository being used to test SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT (APO) to consider having APO commit to additional data to prevent this issue for users of that extension.
  • 237
    • Discussion about storing data in the block chain:
    • Robert Dickinson posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list to inquire about whether a size limit should be imposed to discourage storing large amounts of data in the witness data for transactions containing segwit v1
    • Summary of call about mitigating LN jamming:
    • Carla Kirk-Cohen and Clara Shikhelman posted to the Lightning-Dev mailing list a summary of a recent video conversation about attempts to address channel jamming attacks.

Audience Questions

  • 01:38:46 Thanks to everyone who submitted questions, we answered the following questions in today’s episode:
    • “Thoughts on future of Keet and Holepunch and potential Nostr/Bitcoin integration. Any concern Keet is not opensourced yet?” ~RayRay
    • “[Is] Craig is coming to Nostr?” ~RayRay
    • “Details on bip329 how it works and also practically how to use it” ~sdbtc

Shoutouts

  • 01:38:46 Special shoutouts to the following projects:
  • Bitcoin Sticker Bounties
  • Our mission is to put Bitcoin stickers all over the world in places lots of people will see. Each sticker links to
  • NoGood Radio
  • 24/7 lofi radio station running on scrap parts and broadcasting from a basement somewhere
  • Alby Buzz - A great bitcoin & lightning newsletter

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