Stay up to Date on the Latest in Bitcoin Tech

  1. Weekly summaries of bitcoin-dev, lightning-dev, and delving bitcoin mailing lists
  2. Keep your finger on the pulse of bitcoin tech development and conversations
  3. Perfect for bitcoin builders, educators, and contributors to stay on top of a growing field

Bitcoin TLDR

#79

May 5 - May 11, 2025

curly arrow

Catch up on This Week's Activity

Joshua Doman's "Graftleaf" proposal is a significant advancement in Bitcoin's scripting capabilities, introducing a method for generalized program composition and coin delegation through a new Taproot leaf version. It aims to overcome the limitations of previous proposals by supporting complex script compositions and delegations, promising improved privacy, fungibility, and backward compatibility with existing P2TR addresses. The technical sophistication of Graftleaf is highlighted by its design to prevent security issues like replay attacks and witness malleability, emphasizing its potential for creating complex spending policies such as "vault-of-vaults" (source).

The transition from OP_VAULT (BIP-345) to OP_CHECKCONTRACTVERIFY (CCV) marks a pivotal development in Bitcoin scripting, with CCV offering a more general and efficient approach to secure Bitcoin vaults. This evolution retains the foundational appeal of VAULT while introducing improved functionality and flexibility, setting a new benchmark for future proposals despite challenges in implementing certain security-enhancing "decorator" opcodes (source).

Discussion on routing in payment networks, led by brh28, addresses liquidity uncertainty and inefficiencies in path discovery, proposing cooperative path queries to enhance routing efficiency and reduce costs. This model promotes a distributed routing landscape by enabling dynamic information sharing among nodes, improving the success rates of large payments, and minimizing reliance on comprehensive channel graphs. Despite privacy concerns, the approach offers a balanced mechanism for nodes to manage information disclosure, potentially revolutionizing payment routing in the network (source).

Read This Week's Newsletters
/icons/grey-bitcoin-icon.svg
FOCUSED ON BITCOIN

100% concentrated on bitcoin and related technologies

/icons/grey-github-icon.svg
OPEN SOURCE

Everything we do is open source. We want your reviews and contributions

/icons/grey-code-icon.svg
BITCOIN TECH

We focus on enabling devs to learn, practice, and build with bitcoin.

Explore Bitcoin Tech Conversations
dancing astronaut

Active Discussions

Check out posts actively getting replies and inspiring conversations.

View All

Historic Conversations

Explore posts from past years in this historic deep dive.

View All

All Activity

Read the most recent individual posts in chronological order.

View All
curvy lines
Latest Bitcoin TLDR Newsletters

Bitcoin TLDR

#79

newsletter icon

May 5 - May 11, 2025

Joshua Doman's "Graftleaf" proposal is a significant advancement in Bitcoin's scripting capabilities, introducing a method for generalized program composition and coin delegation through a new Taproot leaf version. It aims to overcome the limitations of previous proposals by supporting complex script compositions and delegations, promising improved privacy, fungibility, and backward compatibility with existing P2TR addresses. The technical sophistication of Graftleaf is highlighted by its design to prevent security issues like replay attacks and witness malleability, emphasizing its potential for creating complex spending policies such as "vault-of-vaults" ([source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/0b5b560b-aa0c-4669-9621-67ccbecba516n@googlegroups.com/T/#u#m2f5da099a7ecd43f8a7495cba67f9a009ca57851)). The transition from OP_VAULT (BIP-345) to OP_CHECKCONTRACTVERIFY (CCV) marks a pivotal development in Bitcoin scripting, with CCV offering a more general and efficient approach to secure Bitcoin vaults. This evolution retains the foundational appeal of VAULT while introducing improved functionality and flexibility, setting a new benchmark for future proposals despite challenges in implementing certain security-enhancing "decorator" opcodes ([source](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/withdrawing-op-vault-bip-345/1670)). Discussion on routing in payment networks, led by brh28, addresses liquidity uncertainty and inefficiencies in path discovery, proposing cooperative path queries to enhance routing efficiency and reduce costs. This model promotes a distributed routing landscape by enabling dynamic information sharing among nodes, improving the success rates of large payments, and minimizing reliance on comprehensive channel graphs. Despite privacy concerns, the approach offers a balanced mechanism for nodes to manage information disclosure, potentially revolutionizing payment routing in the network ([source](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/path-queries-overcoming-liquidity-uncertainty-and-other-routing-limitations/1672)).

Bitcoin TLDR

#78

newsletter icon

Apr 28 - May 4, 2025

Anthony Towns highlighted a pivotal update in the Bitcoin network where the `mempoolfullrbf` default setting was changed in version 28.0, marking a significant shift that could influence network operations and user experiences, given the considerable adoption rate of this version. This change prompts a closer examination of its implications on transaction dynamics and support requirements [source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/CABZBVTBupMcBbOUtLbMaEmAiWGsMwisNW+k+bTUJGsUad2=ZZg@mail.gmail.com/T/#mb7bc2785adb6d821b21cceedeb33b7f641ec580c). Antoine Poinsot alerted the community to a security advisory addressing a low-severity issue in Bitcoin Core versions prior to 29.0, underscoring the importance of adhering to updated security practices and the projectโ€™s transparent disclosure policy. This advisory, along with the detailed security disclosure policy, is essential for maintaining the integrity and trustworthiness of the software [source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/EYvwAFPNEfsQ8cVwiK-8v6ovJU43Vy-ylARiDQ_1XBXAgg_ZqWIpB6m51fAIRtI-rfTmMGvGLrOe5Utl5y9uaHySELpya2ojC7yGsXnP90s=@protonmail.com/T/#u#mc3e78110ae4b67757a616e3c7492ce1cc56858c1). Matthew Zipkin suggested improvements to the Bitcoin development process by proposing an intermediary step involving GitHub "discussions" to bridge the gap between mailing list discourse and pull request reviews, aiming to enhance community engagement and feedback quality. This approach seeks to mitigate disenfranchisement felt by community members not involved in initial discussions and to streamline the review process for policy changes [source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/2294D284-77C1-4885-9585-E591FEE4878A@sprovoost.nl/T/#m42bd7df02f781ba1c91aa1db25d309126f5382be). Victor K of StarkWare introduced ColliderVM, a protocol enabling stateful computation on the Bitcoin network, facilitating a broader range of functionalities including smart contracts and layer two bridges without relying on fraud proofs. This development marks a significant leap towards enhancing Bitcoin's computational capabilities and operational efficiency, offering a glimpse into future applications that extend beyond the current scope of Bitcoin script [source](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/collidervm-protocol-for-computation-and-l2-bridges/1662).

Bitcoin TLDR

#77

newsletter icon

Apr 21 - Apr 27, 2025

Ruben Somsen's analysis reveals a potential vulnerability in SwiftSync related to the removal of checkpoints predating 2013, which currently prevent a reorganization (reorg) back to 2010, safeguarding against certain exploits. The discussion extends to the inefficiencies of BIP30 in consensus checks and its complication for implementing alternative validation methods. Somsen proposes either enforcing a no-reorg rule between specific blocks or amending pre-checkpoint consensus rules to mitigate risks associated with reorgs and the spending of duplicated transactions. Further, Somsen outlines the indefinite activation of BIP30 until the activation of BIP34 at block height 227931, highlighting concerns over output creation that conflicts with BIP34's rules. He suggests a more efficient system that caches coinbase transaction IDs (TXIDs) to prevent duplicates, potentially enabling the sunset of BIP30. This new approach aims to ensure coinbase uniqueness up until BIP34's activation block, facilitating its activation regardless of a reorg and contributing to the ongoing dialogue among developers to improve blockchain consensus mechanisms' efficiency and security. [Read more about the discussion](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/000201dbb7b7$7af02be0$70d083a0$@voskuil.org/T/#mc008edc5f9383e091d1c6259c798877fb79588a7).

Read Summaries by Source

Bitcoin Dev

View All

Delving Bitcoin

View All

Lightning Dev (archive)

View All
reading astronaut
curvy lines
What People Have to Say
Bitcoin Logo

TLDR

Join Our Newsletter

Weโ€™ll email you summaries of the latest discussions from authoritative bitcoin sources, like bitcoin-dev, lightning-dev, and Delving Bitcoin.

Explore all Products

ChatBTC imageBitcoin searchBitcoin TranscriptsSaving SatoshiBitcoin Transcripts Review
Built with ๐Ÿงก by the Bitcoin Dev Project
View our public visitor count

We'd love to hear your feedback on this project?

Give Feedback