I’m joined by guests Future Paul & Calle to go through the list.

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Software Releases & Project Updates

  • 00:01:56 COLDCARD Mk4 v5.1.2
    • Now, all SIGHASH types are supported (previously only SIGHASH_ALL was supported).
    • Enhancements:
    • http://SeedXOR.com now supports 12- and 18-word mnemonics
    • Memory signing speed optimizations
    • Docker repro build container improvements (non-privileged container)
    • Bug fixes:
    • Users no longer need to manually reboot Coldcard after importing private key and TAPSIGNER backup
    • SIGHASH type is no longer set on foreign PSBT inputs
    • Fixed issue where “Validating…” screen would appear twice
  • 00:06:23 Sparrow v1.7.5
    • Add Border Wallets number grid support
    • Always show Tapsigner in airgapped import options
    • Improve error message when Bitcoin Core wallet support is disabled
    • Update Specter Desktop wallet import
  • 00:10:58 Electrum v4.4.0
    • New Android app, using QML instead of Kivy
    • Qt GUI improvements
    • Privacy features:
    • lightning: support for option scid_alias.
    • Qt GUI: UTXO privacy analysis: this dialog displays all the wallet transactions that are either parent of a UTXO, or can be related to it through address reuse (Note that in the case of address reuse, it does not display children transactions.)
    • Coins tab: New menu that lets users easily spend a selection of UTXOs into a new channel, or into a submarine swap (Qt GUI).
    • Internal:
    • Lightning invoices are regenerated everytime routing hints are deprecated due to liquidity changes.
    • Script descriptors are used internally to sign transactions.
  • 00:13:48 BTC Pay Server v1.9.0
    • Exchange integration via plugins
    • Improved digital receipts
    • Improved NFC experience
    • New checkout presets: Retail and Online mode
    • New recovery seed phrase view
    • Wallet Labels export (BIP-329) Implemented
    • Label management refined
    • Restructured how metadata is viewed
  • 00:15:16 RoboSats
    • v0.4.3-alpha
    • Support for Iranian Toman (IRT)
    • Order book performance improved
    • Android app now launches your Telegram client or LN wallet when tapping on the QR codes.
    • Add multi-architecture builds for Android (size of APK down from ~120MB to ~30MB)
    • Improved order book column management
    • Coordinator allows all origins (prerequisite for further Federation-enabled clients testings)
    • Improved handling of stray locked HTLCs
    • Improved handling of payout invoices that are “holded” or get stuck
    • Improved resource efficienty of celery tasks.
    • Improved visuals on Telegram notifications ( …have EmOjIs…)
    • LN Proxy Integration
    • LN proxy tool is now under “advanced options”
  • 00:16:42 BISQ v1.9.10 (Pre Release)
    • This release is packed with improvements under the hood to improve the overall performance of Bisq.
    • Improvements
    • Always include high prio payload in get data response
    • Seednode improvements for monitoring
    • Distribute seednode restart times evenly
    • Reduce log level of two messages which frequently fill user’s log
    • Warn user when free disk space is too low.
    • Do not start new retry with new provider timer if one is still running
    • Maker check DAO health when handling OfferAvailabilityRequest
    • Speed up loading and scrolling of trade history
    • Limit offer min/max amount deviation to 50%
  • 00:19:21 libwally-core v0.8.9
    • Taproot: Support for Schnorr signatures and BIP-341 key tweaking, support user-supplied auxiliary data for ECDSA
    • BIP32/Descriptors: Support multi-path descriptors, add descriptor introspection functions
    • PSBT: Finalization improvements, finer serialization control, minor bug fixes/stricter validation
    • Elements: Support for deterministic blinding factor generation matching Jade and Ledger
    • Elements: Support short master blinding keys, add rangeproof size estimation
    • Build: Support mbed-tls native SHA functions including HW acceleration for embedded builds
  • 00:20:15 nix-bitcoin v0.0.90
    • New trustedcoin package and module.
    • Trustedcoin is a clightning plugin that allows replaces bitcoind with trusted public explorers.
    • Useful for demos.
  • 00:20:56 Nunchuk Desktop v1.9.18
    • Minor improvements (UI flow, performance)
    • Fix bug (sync data)
    • Enable service tab with new feature (Emergency lockdown, Recover tapsigner)
    • Enable chat with expert (Nunchuk support)
    • Support send attachment for premium account (Support)
  • 00:21:26 Blockstream Green iOS v4.0.0
    • Redesigned look and improved UX adapting to individual self-custody needs
    • Ability to create accounts with different security levels and manage funds across them
  • 00:22:34 Trezor v23.4.1 (Pre-release)
    • Coinjoin is available for Trezor Model T
    • Upload full screen custom backgrounds on Model T
  • 00:22:59 Fully Noded v0.6.1
    • Lightning can now be used without an onchain node added
    • Join Market can now be used without an onchain node added
    • Nostr functionality has been improved
    • General UI/UX improvements and bug fixes
  • 00:23:45 Liana v0.4: more usable and more recovery paths!
    • Support for descriptors with multiple recovery paths
    • Usability improvements in the GUI around signing devices management
  • 00:24:00 mycitadel v1.2
    • More supported hardware wallets, updated dependencies and support for hardware signers on the testnet
  • 00:24:28 rgb-core v0.10.0
    • The release represent deep refactoring of RGB to complete its support for Turing-complete smart contracts.
    • Migration to strict type system
    • Removing embedded validation procedures in favor of AluVM
    • Global state
    • Consensus ordering of global state data
    • Validation of structured state with strict types system
  • 00:27:18 Descriptor wallet library v0.9.2
    • Transaction weight and fee information
    • Parsing witness data for P2WPKH and P2WSH outputs
    • Miniscript representation of scripts
    • RBF information
    • Additional mining information for some of electrum servers
    • Coloring output

Lightning Software Releases & Project Updates

  • 00:27:54 MutinyNet launched
    • Mutiny is launching its own shitcoin! It’s cooler and faster than bitcoin, it just has no value. (It’s a custom signet)
    • Benefits:
    • Simplified testing infrastructure
    • Faster block times
    • Testing over time
    • Custom signets are cool
  • 00:30:59 Zeus v0.7.5-alpha1 (Pre-release)
    • New camera w/ Samsung Galaxy support
    • New Payment Path view
    • Handle display of In-Flight payments
    • External link warning + prompt
    • iOS: clear saved settings on uninstall
    • Settings: Display: Show all decimal places
    • Lightning Address: handle addresses hosted on Tor
    • LNURLw patch for fixed amounts
  • 00:33:51 Blixt v0.6.6
    • Updated lnd to lnd v0.16
    • Added support for bimodal pathfinding (based on Pickhardt payments). Enable it in Settings!
    • Added the ability to set a label for a contact in the contact list
    • Sats amount on Overview screen is now grouped
  • 00:36:50 TORQ v0.20.3
    • New Peers page
    • Basic Slack and Telegram integrations
    • Embedded binaries
    • Workflow logs automatic cleanup
    • Invoice deduplication
    • Workflow node deletion performance fix
    • Removed faulty dependency that caused excessive CPU usage
    • Back-end optimizations
  • 00:37:19 Nutstash Wallet
  • 00:38:18 Phoenix iOS v1.6.0
    • Add Tor support; note that enabling Tor will slow down the wallet
    • Add a screen to export your local payments in a CSV format
    • Add a screen to easily reset the wallet data
  • 00:38:54 Wavlake
  • 00:39:41 Stemstr
  • 00:40:27 Satimoto v0.4.4 (Pre-release)
    • This release adds Breez SDK as a backend provider to the Satimoto mobile application
    • Reduced syncing time, better battery life and improved payment handling.
    • Settings restructured and extended to add optional setting of battery information to improve invoice estimation
    • Adds ability to confirm a charge session has started and claim satsback.
  • 00:41:31 Zaprite rebuilt
    • Database: Migrated away from Google Firebase and are now using internal PostgreSQL
    • Checkouts: All payments are now routed through a new Checkout experience
    • Organizations/Teams: Zaprite account now comes with a default Organization. Adding a Teams feature soon which will allow iviting of other members with assigned roles
    • Invoices: Redesigned the Invoice generation and preview experience
    • New features: Discounts + Tax amounts per line item and reordering of line items
    • Invoice Payments: Choice of ndividual payment methods per invoice, or Organization’s default Checkout.Ability to save choices for specific Customers
    • Invoice Sending: Send your Invoice to multiple recipients, attach a PDF to the email and cc yourself or use Sharing links
    • PDFs: Customers can now scan a QR code to pay the Invoice on their phone
    • Transactions: Uupdated Transaction data model, allowing recording of more accurate and helpful information

Bitcoin & Lightning Project spotlight

  • 00:42:25 bitcoin.rocks - Simple website explaining why Bitcoin rocks (perfect for orange pilling)
  • 00:42:35 psbt.io
    • Send bitcoin transactions when certain conditions are met. Example cases:
    • Spend a tx with an absolute timelock that spends your cold storage to a known address in case of complete loss of keys.
    • Automatically add collateral to a bitcoin-backed loan if the price drops to a certain level.
  • 00:42:57 Mercury Wallet releases mercury-node, a lightweight Bitcoin Lightning node implementation [Announcement/Project Github]
  • 00:44:21 Parmanode by ArmanTheParman: An easy AF Bitcoin Node installation/verification/menu for desktop Linux [Announcement/Github]
  • 00:44:48 LNProxy.org
    • Creates wrapped invoices
    • VPN-like privacy but for lightning
    • Usage:
    • Request that an lnproxy relay generate a “proxy invoice”: an invoice with the same payment hash
    • Once you verify the amount and payment hash, you can use the proxy invoice wherever would have used the original invoice and know that the only way for the payment to succeed is for the lnproxy relay to pay the original invoice.
    • When an lnproxy relay accepts an htlc for the proxy invoice, it immediately pays the original invoice and uses the revealed preimage to settle the proxy invoice, so you don’t need to trust lnproxy relays with your payments.

Nostr

Nostr Software Releases & Project Updates

  • 00:46:53 NIP-47: Nostr Wallet Connect
    • Makes zaps possible without the user needing to open a different app to only pay a Lightning invoice
  • 00:47:13 NIP-15: Nostr Marketplace (formally NIP-45) merged
  • 00:47:34 ananostr
  • 00:50:43 Damus v1.4.3-1
    • Add deep links for local notifications
    • Add thread muting
    • Preview media uploads when posting
    • Add QR Code in profiles
  • 00:50:58 Snort Social v0.1.6
    • Snort NIP5 management page (for transfers to new pubkeys)
    • Short links for Snort NIP5 owners
  • 00:51:08 Amethyst v0.32.2
    • Adds Note preview in Chat and DMs
    • Adds tagging for Notes and Users in Chats
    • Adds LN invoice creation in new posts
    • Adds notifications for profile zaps
    • Adds private replies of DMs in Notifications
  • 00:51:21 nblog v0.3.0 - Feeds and Authors
    • Display package version on footer
    • Add a nice underline under post titles
    • Add author information to Posts
    • Atom feeds
  • 00:52:20 Coracle v0.2.23
    • Use relays specified in bech32 entities
    • Add colored relay indicator to notes
    • Add relay-filtered overlay dialog to feeds
    • Improve relay detail header

Nostr Project spotlight

  • 00:52:44 nostrit
    • Publish a Nostr note when something happens (on date, on bitcoin block, when bitcoin price is, when shitcoin price is)
  • 00:53:17 zapworthy
  • 00:53:31 NostrGraph Dashboard
    • Get Insights into your Nostr network:
    • Your Events: Summarise your daily events by kind to see your contributions
    • Your Reactions: See all the reactions you’ve made to content from others
    • Engagement: Understand how your community is interacting with your content
    • Community Reactions: Visualise how the community is reacting to you
    • Follower Changes: See how your network grows, and who has recently joined
    • Following Changes: Track the accounts you follow over time
    • Event Counts: Simple counters for your Nostr event kinds since all time
    • ZAPs: Hit points for your extensive career ZAPPING friends and foe
  • 00:53:45 primal.net
  • 00:56:00 Nostri.chat - A chat widget for your site, powered by nostr
  • 00:57:49 N3XB: Naive Nostr No-KYC Exchange for Bitcoin [Github]
    • N3X (Naive Nostr No-KYC Exchange) is a layer 2 protocol inspired by, and runs on top of Nostr.
    • The goal is to be a simple but extensible protocol to facilitate exchanges and marketplaces in an interoperable, censorship-resistant, privacy-aware, and decentralized manner.

Boosts

  • 00:57:49 Thanks to everyone who streamed sats, and shoutout to our top boosters:
    • Purple Deer (5k sats) “Thank you for the honest, fun and technical signal. You all rock.”
    • puravida (7,450 sats) “Nice show! very informative.”
    • Magenta Panda (5k sats) “Knowledge for plebs”
    • Magenta Boar (5k sats) “streaming sats”
    • northofthewall
    • (12,121 sats) “🔑”
    • (12,121 sats) “🔑”
    • apemithrandir (note: Pronounced ‘Ape Myth-ran-deer’)
    • mrmr (7,747) “best/latest FEDIMINT re-summary. THANKYOU”

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter

  • 00:59:20 244
    • Preventing stranded capital with multiparty channels and channel factories
    • John describes how always-available nodes can continue using their funds to forward payments even when they share a channel with a node that’s currently unavailable (such as the user of a mobile LN wallet). This requires the use of multiparty channels.
    • He also restates a known benefit of channel factories of allowing channels to be rebalanced offchain, which may also allow better use of capital. He describes how to use both benefits in the context of his previous innovation of the tunable penalty layer for LN.
  • 00:59:34 245
    • Watchtower accountability proofs
    • Sergi Delgado Segura posted about holding watchtowers accountable for failing to respond to protocol breaches they were capable of detecting.
    • For example, Alice provides a watchtower with data for detecting and responding to the confirmation of an old LN channel state; later, that state is confirmed but the watchtower fails to respond. Alice would like to be able to hold the watchtower operator accountable by publicly proving it failed to respond appropriately.
  • 01:00:49 246
    • Splicing specification
    • Ongoing work on the draft specification for splicing
    • Splicing allows some funds in an offchain LN channel to be spent onchain (splice-out) or for onchain funds to be added to an offchain channel (splice-in). The channel can continue to operate while an onchain splicing transaction is waiting for sufficient confirmations.
    • Proposed BIP for transaction terminology
    • Mark “Murch” Erhardt posted the draft of an informational BIP to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list that suggests a vocabulary to use for referring to parts of transactions and concepts relating to them.

News & Noteworthy

Bitcoin

  • 01:01:16 The Bitcoin Whitepaper Is Hidden in Every Modern Copy of macOS [Andy Baio Blog Post]

Lightning

  • 01:02:56 Resizing Lightning Channels Off-Chain With Hierarchical Channels [Proposal]
    • Dynamic management of Lightning channel capacity is required to support efficient Lightning Network (LN) payments
    • On-chain resizing introduces delays, adds costs and limits scalability
    • Fast and cheap resizing may be required to support watchtower-free LN payments for casual users
    • Channel factories allow off-chain channel resizing, but only by exchanging capacity within a single factory
    • Hierarchical channels allow flexible, off-chain resizing of channels
    • They don’t require an exchange of capacity within a limited pool of users
    • They also support watchtower-free casual users without stranding any channel capacity
    • Hierarchical channels do for channel capacity what the LN does for bitcoin
    • No change to the underlying Bitcoin protocol is required
  • 01:10:15 Lightspark platform launches [Announcement/Website]
  • 01:11:52 MicroStrategy converted all the company’s email addresses into Lightning addresses according to Michael Saylor on Cafe Bitcoin
  • 01:12:01 Wallet of Satoshi processed 905,000 Lightning payments in March, a huge all-time high [Kevin Rooke/Voltage]
  • 01:12:12 Wallet of Satoshi Point of Sale First Look [WoS Twitter Post]

Nostr

  • 01:12:17 [Civ Kit: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Market System] proposed by Nicholas Gregory, Ray Youssef & Antoine Riard [Whitepaper]
    • A peer-to-peer market system to enable censorship-resistant and permissionless global trading in all parts of the world. While the design aims in priority to serve on-ramp/off-ramp trading, it can be extended to support any kind of trading: goods, services, bitcoin financial derivatives like discreet log contracts.
    • The design combines the Nostr architecture of simple relays announcing trade orders to their clients with Lightning onion routing infrastructure therefore granting high-level of confidentiality to the market participants.
    • The market boards are Nostr relays with a Lightning gateway, each operating autonomously and in competition.
    • The market boards can be runned as a federation however there is no “decentralized orderbook” logged into the blockchain.
    • The trades are escrowed under Bitcoin Script contracts, relying on moderations and know your peer oracles for adjudication.
  • 01:13:35 LNBits announces Nostr Market, Nostr Client and Nostr Relay extensions
  • 01:17:44 Voltage has launched support for Nostr [Announcement]
    • NIP05, Zaps, Lightning Addresses

Privacy

  • 01:19:59 Chivo Wallet is flagging & freezing wallets who receive transactions from Wasabi [Bitcoin Beach]

Mining

  • 01:20:44 New Stratum v2 reference implementation update with Job Negotiator [Announcement]
    • Update allows miners to select transactions via a new sub-protocol and their node.
    • Goal is to democratize transaction selections in pooled mining and decentralize bitcoin
  • 01:20:55 Sweden to increase data center taxes by 6,000% [Coindesk]
    • The last remaining stronghold of bitcoin miners in Europe, is abolishing tax incentives for data centers in July – potentially putting the last nail in the coffin for the industry in the region.
    • The tax will increase from SEK 0.006 ($0.0006) to SEK 0.36 ($0.035) per kilowatt hour (kWh) starting July of this year, according to the financial budget published in November 2022
    • The upcoming tax will likely stop any new investment in Sweden, which is currently home to about 150 megawatts (MW) of mining.
  • 01:21:36 New York Times [Bitcoin mining hitpiece] shared by [Elizabeth Warren]. Pierre Rochard [responded].

Enterprise & Finance

  • 01:24:32 Pocket acquires bitcoin wallet app Bitkipi [Announcement]
    • Users can now create a bitcoin wallet and store and buy bitcoin in the app without further relying on a third party
  • 01:24:39 Strike Send Globally is now available in Senegal, Benin, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, and Togo [Announcement]
    • Partnered with Bitnob
  • 01:24:47 Zebedee partners with Bitnob [Announcement]
    • ZEBEDEE users from several African states can earn Bitcoin with ZEBEDEE and then spend their earnings through Bitnob using their local currency.
    • Simply requires connecting Bitnob account to ZEBEDEE, and LN Bitcoin can be converted to local currency in one tap
  • 01:24:52 Block partners with African crypto exchange Yellow Card [Fortune]
    • Partnership facilitates cross-border payments between 16 countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.

Privacy

  • 01:25:44 LinkingLion: An entity linking Bitcoin transactions to IPs? [Article]

Reads

  • 01:30:20 LNP/BP Standards Association educational website to learn about RBG smart contracts [rgb.tech]

Political

  • 01:30:28 Launch Of UK’s First Bitcoin-only Policy Organisation - Bitcoin Policy UK [Website/Announement]
    • Organisation aims to unlock Bitcoin’s potential for the UK economy by uniting diverse stakeholders, such as policymakers, environmentalists, businesses, energy producers, and Bitcoin experts

Audience Questions

Additional Notes and Resources

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

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