Stay up to Date on the Latest in Bitcoin Tech

Oct 27 - Nov 2, 2025

The segOP proposal by Defenwycke marks a pivotal enhancement in Bitcoin transactions, introducing a segregated, full-fee data lane for structured on-chain data storage, reminiscent of Segregated Witness (SegWit) but focused on addressing the limitations of the current transaction format regarding arbitrary data storage. This proposal, designed as a soft fork, aims for backward compatibility and fair fee assessment, incorporating a new transaction section committed via OP_SUCCESS184 and employing TLV encoding for data management, thereby tackling inefficiencies and setting the stage for future Bitcoin innovations ([source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/c38d00f7-a42b-4f7b-899e-11e823a43d7dn@googlegroups.com/T/#mf683b1ff5f6ba3f101591147e5535e348a8cc3f6)). Juan Alemán suggests a significant restructuring of the Bitcoin repository to mitigate political influence on policy decisions, proposing the separation of consensus rules from policy implementations to ensure decentralization. This approach involves creating a new repository focused on consensus, aiming to accommodate various client needs and maintain the project’s neutrality, thereby addressing the concerns raised by the controversial changes in Bitcoin Core version 30 and averting potential network forks ([source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/73a08ea3-b9be-424b-a1cb-beac3206723cn@googlegroups.com/T/#m0c13517852b39de3778fe8ccac5e065179fdbca8)). Jakob Widmann introduces Anticipation Transactions (ATX) to address Bitcoin's scalability issues, proposing a novel mechanism that bypasses the Lightning Network’s complexities by leveraging the mining infrastructure. This system aims to confirm transactions with a significant percentage of mining hash power, introducing a timelock feature for recipient actions and an innovative fee structure to incentivize miner participation, thereby enhancing Bitcoin’s transaction processing capabilities without necessitating immediate blockchain settlement ([source](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/55e36b59-76c2-4ffc-8f36-9a9a0c2fc02bn@googlegroups.com/T/#u#m8c41fc694d5cdefdc319b2a39da7c8ea44321896)). Lastly, the v31.0 release of Bitcoin Core celebrates a decade since the adoption of libsecp256k1 for ECDSA signature validation, highlighting significant performance enhancements over OpenSSL. Continuous optimizations have made libsecp256k1 vastly superior in verifying ECDSA signatures on the secp256k1 curve, showcasing the focused efforts to improve Bitcoin's efficiency and security. This milestone underscores the importance of specialized libraries in blockchain technology and their role in facilitating secure and rapid transactions ([source](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/comparing-the-performance-of-ecdsa-signature-validation-in-openssl-vs-libsecp256k1-over-the-last-decade/2087)).

Oct 20 - Oct 25, 2025

The Bitcoin Core team has effectively addressed four low-severity security vulnerabilities in their latest software version, demonstrating a commitment to maintaining high security standards. Community members like Eugene Siegel, Niklas Goegge, and Pieter Wuille played a vital role in identifying these vulnerabilities, reinforcing the importance of community collaboration in enhancing software security. The team's dedication is further evidenced by their transparent disclosure policy and the proactive patching of vulnerabilities in earlier versions, ensuring broad protection across the Bitcoin Core ecosystem. For more details, refer to the [Bitcoin Core Security](https://bitcoincore.org/en/security/) page. Antoine Poinsot has made significant strides in the development and testing of BIP54, known as Consensus Cleanup, which aims to improve Bitcoin's protocol by addressing issues like transaction-level sigops limits and introducing new transaction size and timestamp restrictions. This initiative, documented through comprehensive test vectors and a call for community feedback, highlights a concerted effort to maintain Bitcoin's protocol integrity and compatibility across various implementations. Contributions from Chris Stewart, among others, have enriched the testing phase, indicating a robust collaborative approach towards refining Bitcoin's infrastructure. More information on BIP54's progress can be found in the [BIPs repository](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips). A proposal by luke-jr outlining a temporary soft fork to limit arbitrary data at the consensus level within Bitcoin Core v30 highlights the community's consensus on prioritizing bitcoin's function as a currency. The proposal, which introduces both proactive and reactive activation methods to be revisited after one year, reflects a strategic approach to addressing the challenges posed by Bitcoin's increasing popularity and the need for a scalable, focused currency model. The community's engagement and feedback are sought to facilitate a swift implementation process, as detailed in the proposal [here](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/pull/2017). Lastly, a newfound low-severity vulnerability affecting Bitcoin Core versions 24.0 to 30.0 emphasizes the ongoing challenge of safeguarding sensitive information like private keys and wallet passphrases. Despite a historical filter meant to protect against such exposures, the `migratewallet` command was not covered, leading to potential risks. This incident underscores the indispensability of community vigilance and quick response in preserving the security of user data, as demonstrated by the prompt actions of developers like waketraindev and lukedashjr to rectify the issue. For further reading, visit the [knots v29.2 release notes](https://github.com/bitcoinknots/bitcoin/releases/tag/v29.2.knots20251010).

Oct 13 - Oct 19, 2025

A developer's experiment on compact block relay within the Bitcoin network, using a Knots node with specific configurations, demonstrated a 90% success rate in block reconstruction, indicating efficient synchronization and potential for enhancing network scalability. The findings, emphasizing the role of transaction pools and peer requests in compact block relay efficiency, are detailed on [Uncensored Tech Substack](https://uncensoredtech.substack.com/p/compact-block-relay-with-extra-pool) and have sparked further discussion on GitHub regarding improvements to the Bitcoin protocol. The release of Bitcoin Core version 29.2 introduces a suite of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and updated translations, aiming to bolster the software's functionality and user experience. This iteration, which supports a wide range of operating systems, also brings improvements across peer-to-peer networking, the mempool, RPC, CI, and documentation, with contributions from a diverse group of developers detailed on [Bitcoin Core's official site](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/14ad52ca-915a-4cdd-94b1-cf9afce0a4a5n@googlegroups.com/T/#u#m40b78e294b83b48f76a7ffc33cf13b450f0e0068). Abdel's blog post explores the proposed introduction of `OP_STARK_VERIFY` to Tapscript, aiming to enable on-chain verification of STARK proofs to support scalability, post-quantum signatures, and privacy-enhanced transactions within Bitcoin. This initiative underscores the technical and consensus challenges of integrating advanced cryptographic methods into the blockchain, inviting community feedback on the proposal and its potential impact on Bitcoin's protocol [here](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/proposal-op-stark-verify-native-stark-proof-verification-in-bitcoin-script/2056). Finally, updated simulations of a new reputation algorithm demonstrate its effectiveness against specific network attacks, ensuring robustness and maintaining transaction reliability without adversely affecting legitimate users. The algorithm's deployment aims to enhance network resilience, with ongoing real-world data analysis to refine its effectiveness, highlighting the community's role in testing and feedback as detailed in [this analysis](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/outgoing-reputation-simulation-results-and-updates/2069).