Stay up to Date on the Latest in Bitcoin Tech

Apr 14 - Apr 19, 2025

Gloria Zhao announces the release of Bitcoin Core version 29.0, featuring performance improvements, bug fixes, and new functionalities such as `-natpmp` for better IPv4 and IPv6 support, alongside a significant shift from Autotools to CMake in the build system, aimed at enhancing the software's development process. Users are advised to follow specific upgrade procedures based on their operating system and to consult the [official release notes](https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-29.0/) for detailed information on all changes, including adjustments to P2P networking, mining, and the introduction of new RPCs to improve developer interactions with Bitcoin Core. Jonas Nick, Tim Ruffing, and Yannick Seurin introduce DahLIAS, an innovative cryptographic protocol allowing for constant-size, interactive aggregate signatures compatible with secp256k1. This advancement, detailed in their [published paper](https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/692.pdf), presents a significant step forward in reducing transaction sizes and verification costs for Bitcoin and similar applications, marking a key development in the efficiency and scalability of cryptographic practices within digital currency systems. A debate surrounding the moderation guidelines in the Bitcoin Core metadata repository has emerged, with proponents arguing for the removal of such policies citing concerns over formal governance structures potentially influencing consensus rules. This discussion, fueled by references to decentralized development philosophies and legal considerations like the Berne Convention, underscores the tension between maintaining civility within the community and adhering to the foundational principle of decentralization. The dialogue encapsulates a broader discourse on the balance between structured governance and the anarchic ethos that has historically underpinned Bitcoin's development community, as detailed in [this forum post](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/some-problems-with-current-bitcoin-core-moderation-md/1616).

Apr 7 - Apr 13, 2025

Ruben Somsen introduces SwiftSync, a novel method that streamlines the Bitcoin blockchain validation process by using hints for unspent transaction outputs and requiring less than 100MB for validation, significantly enhancing efficiency and enabling parallel processing. This approach negates the need for a stateful UTXO set during initial block download, promising a potential 5.28x speed-up in transaction validation ([source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/CAPv7TjaM0tfbcBTRa0_713Bk6Y9jr+ShOC1KZi2V3V2zooTXyg@mail.gmail.com/T/#u#mc66763934f25b65ce5006f0a4dd19cd359a8b452)). Ethan Heilman discusses the integration of Post-Quantum signatures into Bitcoin, highlighting their larger size and the scalability challenge it presents. He proposes Non-interactive Transaction Compression as a solution, which could drastically reduce transaction sizes and increase Bitcoin's transaction throughput, addressing scalability and economic implications of larger PQ signatures while acknowledging the need for efficient proof construction to avoid mining centralization ([source](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/post-quantum-signatures-and-scaling-bitcoin-with-starks/1584)). Robin Linus elaborates on the use of input-committing covenants for constructing more efficient and secure bridges in the BitVM ecosystem, leveraging CTV and CSFS to eliminate the need for presigning committees and significantly reduce transaction sizes. This advancement simplifies bridge architecture, enhances operational efficiency, and aims towards trust-minimized Bitcoin interoperability, though challenges such as potential censorship in the peg-in process remain ([source](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/how-ctv-csfs-improves-bitvm/1591)). Lastly, zawy proposes a novel security method for cryptocurrency seed words, using mining techniques to allow users to remember fewer seed words. By splitting a nonce into seed words and a highly public random seed, the method balances remembrance with security, making unauthorized access economically prohibitive. This approach leverages computational work as a defensive mechanism, ensuring that an attacker's costs outweigh potential gains ([source](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/hashing-to-remember-forgotten-seed-words/1597)).

Mar 31 - Apr 6, 2025

Jonas Nick's introduction of secp256k1lab heralds a pivotal advancement for cryptographic endeavors within Bitcoin's ecosystem, providing a Python library aimed at facilitating prototyping, educational purposes, and experimentation with the secp256k1 elliptic curve. Despite its designation as INSECURE for production use, secp256k1lab supports crucial features like Schnorr signatures and Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), underscoring its potential for enhancing decentralized key generation protocols within the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) framework. The project, developed by Sebastian Falbesoner, Jonas Nick, and Tim Ruffing, encourages community engagement for further development and is accessible on [GitHub](https://github.com/secp256k1lab/secp256k1lab). Ethan Heilman brings to light the imperative for Bitcoin to integrate Post-Quantum (PQ) signatures to counteract vulnerabilities against quantum computing attacks, proposing Non-interactive Transaction Compression (NTC) or Non-Interactive Witness Aggregation (NIWA) using STARKs for efficient PQ signature transactions. This solution aims to mitigate potential scalability and centralization issues by significantly reducing the transaction size, thus preserving Bitcoin's on-chain payment functionality and decentralization. The proposed methods and their implications for Bitcoin's future are discussed in various resources, including [Bitcoin Improvement Proposals](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/pull/1670/files) and [SNARKs and Blockchain Future](https://medium.com/@RubenSomsen/snarks-and-the-future-of-blockchains-55b82012452b). Chris_Stewart_5 discusses the vibrant debates within the Bitcoin community concerning enhancements to Script's functionality, particularly focusing on overflow handling and arithmetic opcode enhancements. This discourse, framed by initiatives like Rusty Russell's Great Script Restoration and proposals for 64-bit arithmetic soft forks, underscores the delicate balance between computational integrity and security. The community's efforts to refine script operations reflect a broader commitment to ensuring Bitcoin's scripting language remains robust against potential vulnerabilities, as detailed in discussions on [overflow handling in Script](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/overflow-handling-in-script/1549). Ruben Somsen's proposal to expedite Bitcoin Core's Initial Block Download (IBD) phase through pre-generated hints represents a forward-thinking approach to optimizing blockchain performance. This "IBD Booster" aims to streamline the validation process, reducing resource-intensive operations by selectively adding coins to the UTXO set, thereby accelerating the IBD phase while highlighting operational limitations and areas for future research. The community is invited to contribute to this innovative project, with tools and a proof-of-concept implementation available on [GitHub](https://github.com/theStack/ibd-booster-hints-gen) and further details on the [IBD Booster branch](https://github.com/theStack/bitcoin/tree/ibd_booster_v0).