Topics covered in this podcast include funding open source projects, building secure mobile wallets, lightning improvements, separating the core out of Bitcoin Core, preparing Lightning for mainstream adoption, and the introduction of Bolt12 for easier peer-to-peer transactions.
Stratum V2 is making significant progress in decentralizing mining and enhancing security.
Fettament shows great potential for improving privacy and scaling in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Wallet Scrutiny aims to reduce risks associated with mobile wallets and build trust within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bolt 12 offers reusable payment identifiers, improving the scanning experience and facilitating non-invoiced transactions.
Deep dives
Stratum V2 is making progress towards improving mining decentralization and security.
Stratum V2, an upgraded mining protocol that aims to decentralize mining and enhance security, has made significant strides in its development. Brains, the team behind the project, has implemented several improvements, including authentication and encryption. While there's still work to be done, such as job negotiation, it is now at a stage where it can be tested and used. Additionally, an open-source project called SRI Stratum Reference Implementation has created a proxy that allows existing mining machines to communicate with Stratum V2 pools. This progress towards decentralizing mining and improving security is a significant development for the Bitcoin mining ecosystem.
Fettament is an exciting project with the potential to enhance privacy and scaling in Bitcoin.
Fettament is an open-source protocol that focuses on providing enhanced privacy and scaling solutions in Bitcoin. Spiral has funded several developers to work on the open-source implementation of Fettament, which aims to reduce the risks associated with mobile wallet usage. By ensuring reproducible builds, independent parties can verify that the binary they produce is the same as the digitally signed version. Although Fettament provides custodial services, it introduces the concept of multiple custodians, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities and exit scams. While Fettament is in its early stages, it shows great potential for improving privacy and scaling in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Wallet Scrutiny seeks to increase transparency and security with reproducible builds.
Wallet Scrutiny is a project aimed at reducing risks associated with mobile wallets by focusing on reproducible builds. The project aims to ensure that the binary released by the wallet developer matches the open-source code by independent verification. While the project has faced challenges due to a lack of resources and controversy within the community, recent efforts have been made to improve user experience and involve more contributors. The goal is to create a more community-driven project to prevent wallet vulnerability and build trust within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bolt 12 and Reusable Payment Identifiers
Bolt 12 introduces reusable payment identifiers called offers, making it easier for users to send and receive payments without the need for traditional invoice-based interactions. This is particularly useful for tipping, donations, and peer-to-peer transactions where an invoice exchange is not practical. Additionally, Bolt 12 offers smaller QR codes and reduces the density of data, improving the scanning experience, especially on older devices in regions with limited technology access.
Privacy and UX Challenges with Bolt 11 Invoices
Traditional Bolt 11 invoices have limitations, such as one-time use and the burden of interactive invoice exchange. These challenges make it less suitable for certain payment use cases. The introduction of Bolt 12 offers addresses these issues by providing reusable payment identifiers. However, the paths and routing hints in Bolt 12 offers may need to be updated periodically for improved privacy or when network topology changes.
Fetch Invoice Communication and Reducing QR Code Data
With Bolt 12 offers, the invoice communication between sender and receiver happens through encrypted onion messages, reducing the need to display the invoice directly in the QR code. This enables the inclusion of more data, such as routing hints and blinded paths, without affecting the QR code size. By separating the invoice fetch from the offer itself, Bolt 12 offers provide a more efficient and privacy-conscious user experience.
LDC Node: A Multi-Platform Solution
LDC Node, a project developed over the past eight months, is set to be ready soon for mobile devices. This project can also be configured to run on a server, simplifying the process for users to set up an LDC-based solution on a server. Additionally, the possibility of shipping a binary version of the software is being considered to make it more accessible and user-friendly for companies and individuals.
Addressing the Challenges of Lightning Adoption
The podcast episode explores the challenges of developing Lightning applications and wallets, particularly in terms of user experience. The suggestion is to hide the complexity of Lightning from users and focus on providing a seamless Bitcoin spending experience. Solutions such as unified QR codes and async payments are seen as crucial in improving the usability of Lightning. The async payments feature, being developed by Val and the team, aims to address the issue of mobile phone users not being consistently online to receive Lightning payments. The goal is to deliver both bolt 12 and async payments in a way that encourages widespread adoption, while also acknowledging the complexities and interoperability challenges that need to be addressed.
EPISODE: 90
BLOCK: 775897
PRICE: 4626 sats per dollar
TOPICS: spiral year in review, funding open source projects, building secure mobile wallets, design improvements, reducing friction, lightning improvements, bolt12
I. Approaches to Open Source Funding [7:53]
II. Stratum v2 [23:59]
III. Fedimint [40:03]
IV. WalletScrutiny [47:12]
V. Separating the Core Out of Bitcoin Core [59:19]
VI. LDK/LDK Node [1:02:43]
VII. Rapid Gossip Sync [1:10:28]
VIII. VLS [1:28:18]
IX. Unified QR Codes/BIP21 [1:35:45]
X. Preparing Lightning For Mainstream Adoption [1:40:36]
XI. BOLT12 [1:47:22]
