Stay up to Date on the Latest in Bitcoin Tech

Jul 7 - Jul 13, 2025

Recent discussions in the Bitcoin development community have highlighted key advancements and proposals aimed at enhancing the network's functionality and security. Ethan Heilman's contributions to the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 (BIP-360) focus on fortifying Bitcoin against quantum computing threats by adapting Pay to Quantum Resistant Hash (P2QRH) into a taproot format, excluding quantum-vulnerable key-spend paths. This adjustment aims to integrate seamlessly with the existing taproot infrastructure, enhancing protection against potential quantum attacks without necessitating immediate consensus changes for emergency interventions [GitHub](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/pull/1670). Greg Sanders, alongside Antoine Poinsot and Steven Roose, has introduced a technical proposal to improve Bitcoin's infrastructure through functionalities like the "Next transaction" feature, signature verification, and taproot internal key enhancements. Their proposal, incorporating `OP_TEMPLATEHASH`, is designed to be Taproot native, simplifying the implementation process and enhancing efficiency and security within the Bitcoin network [GitHub](https://github.com/instagibbs/bips/blob/bip_op_templatehash/bip-templatehash-csfs-ik.md). On another front, the RGB project, led by Maxim Orlovsky, has achieved a significant milestone with the stable release of its consensus layer, RGB-I-0, after years of development. This release marks a crucial step in client-side validation technology, aiming to provide a stable foundation for contract developers and issuers to deploy contracts on both Bitcoin mainnet and testnet. The release includes integration of zk-STARK support, enhancing the protocol's functionality, and signifies the beginning of forward compatibility for contracts, reducing issues related to backward compatibility due to consensus-level changes [RGB-6 document](https://github.com/RGB-WG/RFC/blob/master/RGB-6.md). These discussions and developments underscore the ongoing efforts within the Bitcoin community to address potential threats, improve network infrastructure, and enhance the security and functionality of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Jun 30 - Jul 6, 2025

Antoine Poinsot highlighted concerns over the potential denial-of-service (DoS) risks associated with activating BIP54 in Bitcoin, given the existence of 2500 legacy signature operations that could be invalidated and lead to non-compliance under current standards. This scenario underscores the fragility in the network's defenses against DoS attacks by unupgraded miners. To mitigate these risks, a proposal has been made to deem such transactions as non-standard, delaying BIP54's activation until there is significant assurance of network-wide hash rate support. This cautious approach, captured in Bitcoin Core PR 32521, aims for inclusion in the upcoming 30.0 release, reflecting a proactive stance on network security and stability. [More details](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/49dyqqkf5NqGlGdinp6SELIoxzE_ONh3UIj6-EB8S804Id5yROq-b1uGK8DUru66eIlWuhb5R3nhRRutwuYjemiuOOBS2FQ4KWDnEh0wLuA=@protonmail.com/T/#u#mef6b7bfe28a931d7674bf5be6ce9ae6c1293e5c4) In another discussion, a 16-year-old Bitcoin enthusiast, referred to as BitMan, proposed developing a fully open-source, community-driven satellite communication system akin to Elon Musk's Starlink for Bitcoin. This ambitious project aims to allow users to broadcast transactions and update the blockchain independently of centralized internet service providers, enhancing Bitcoin's resilience and censorship resistance. Despite acknowledging the significant financial and technical hurdles, the proposal is driven by a vision of true decentralization and global accessibility for Bitcoin, striving for operation almost entirely off-grid. [Read more](https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/09feeb35-5ce8-4198-ba70-5d63698796ban@googlegroups.com/T/#u#m998e9310efb497fef2387ef6733124fe5b83d1b1) Lastly, Josh introduced a new library inspired by a comment from @sjors on a Bitcoin pull request, aimed at reducing QR code sizes for wallets by 30-40% through more efficient encoding of descriptors, including those with private keys. This advancement enhances QR and NFC communication reliability, facilitating easier sharing and storage of complex multisig configurations. The library, which supports a wide range of descriptors and features a straightforward API for encoding and decoding, signifies a step forward in making Bitcoin wallet coordination more efficient and user-friendly. The encoder's development is a testament to the community's ongoing efforts to improve Bitcoin's usability and accessibility, with further information and documentation available on GitHub and docs.rs. [Explore the library](https://github.com/joshdoman/descriptor-codec)

Jun 24 - Jun 30, 2025

Ava Chow announced the release of Bitcoin Core 28.2, which introduces new features, bug fixes, and performance enhancements, aiming to make the software more accessible globally. This version, available for download on the [Bitcoin Core website](https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-28.2/), maintains compatibility with older wallet versions and supports a wide range of operating systems. It emphasizes the importance of community contributions, acknowledging individuals like 0xB10C, achow101, and Sjors Provoost for their roles in the development process. Significant changes include improved build processes, compatibility adjustments, and documentation updates, with detailed instructions provided for upgrading from older versions. In a separate discussion, roasbeef proposes reimagining onion messaging within the Lightning Network (LN) to address limitations of the current model by establishing an overlay layer bootstrapped using the LN gossip layer. This approach aims to enhance deployment speed, privacy, and payment efficiency by reducing reliance on the channel graph, allowing for incremental adoption and facilitating key management improvements. The technical foundation for the overlay involves a series of TLV-based handshake messages for secure onion messaging link establishment, promising better scalability, flexibility, and innovation in LN communications. The proposal, detailed at [Delving Bitcoin](https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/reimagining-onion-messages-as-an-overlay-layer/1799), highlights the potential for a more efficient and private messaging infrastructure within the LN ecosystem.