In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors explain Stamps, a new(?) protocol to upload images onto the Bitcoin blockchain, which end up in the UTXO set. To learn more about some of the concepts mentioned in this episode, also check out episode 15 (Utreexo), episode 61 (OP_RETURN), episode 72 (Inscriptions) and episode 75 (Multisig). Episode Sponsor: https://voltage.cloud/ Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 Don't miss out on the biggest Bitcoin event of the year! B23 in Miami is coming up fast, get your tickets now! Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! - https://b.tc/conference/2023

In this episode, Aaron and Sjors explore the evolution of multisig in Bitcoin, from bare multisig to Taproot and Musig. They discuss the efficiency improvements with SegWit, TAP, and Schnorr signatures, revolutionizing multisig and fund protection strategies against threats like Martians.

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors explain pay-to-script-hash (P2SH), which allows bitcoin to be sent to and from the hash of a script. Besides (the current implementation of) P2SH itself, Aaron and Sjors also discuss some alternatives that were proposed around the time that P2SH was adopted in 2012. For further reading on the history of P2SH, also see "The Battle for P2SH: The Untold History of Bitcoin’s First War" Episode Sponsor: https://voltage.cloud/ Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 Don't miss out on the biggest Bitcoin event of the year! B23 in Miami is coming up fast, get your tickets now! Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! 

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors explain OP_VAULT, a proposed op code that would enable an elegant type of vaults through Bitcoin’s scripting language. For more information, also see: https://jameso.be/vaults.pdf https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/c589490f98ba1b0c606d0e2030463f1fde54b786/bip-vaults.mediawiki === Episode Sponsor: https://voltage.cloud/ Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 Don't miss out on the biggest Bitcoin event of the year! B23 in Miami is coming up fast, get your tickets now! Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! https://b.tc/conference/2023

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors explain Inscriptions, a new method to upload arbitrary data onto the Bitcoin blockchain. Episode Sponsor: https://voltage.cloud/ Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 Don't miss out on the biggest Bitcoin event of the year! B23 in Miami is coming up fast, get your tickets now! Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! https://b.tc/conference/2023

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss the different types of timelocks available on Bitcoin (and what can go wrong when used incorrectly). Episode Sponsor: https://voltage.cloud/ Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 Lower your time preference and lock-in your Bitcoin 2023 conference tickets today!!! Use promo code BMLIVE to save 10% off your conference tickets today!!! https://b.tc/conference/bitcoin2023 Follow us on Twitter: - https://twitter.com/bitcoinmagazine - https://twitter.com/videobitcoin

Aaron and Sjors explain how a wallet bug crept into the Bitcoin Core 24.0 release, and why there is now a Bitcoin Core version 24.0.1 available.   Episode Sponsor: https://voltage.cloud/  Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 Lower your time preference and lock-in your Bitcoin 2023 conference tickets today!!!  Use promo code BMLIVE to save 10% off your conference tickets today!!! https://b.tc/conference/bitcoin2023  Follow us on Twitter:  - https://twitter.com/bitcoinmagazine - https://twitter.com/videobitcoin

Aaron and Sjors explain what happened in the pro forma hearing concerning the trial against Alexy Pertsev, one of the developers behind the Ethereum-based Tornado Cash mixer. While this means that this episode dives more into the domain of Ethereum smart contracts and Dutch law, Aaron and Sjors do discuss the ongoing case from a Bitcoin perspective. THIS EPISODE’S SPONSORS: Voltage - https://voltage.cloud/ Bitcoin 2023 Miami - https://b.tc/conference/ Bitcoin Magazine - https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/ Bitcoin Magazine Pro - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/tags/bitcoin-magazine-pro Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! https://b.tc/conference/2023 Use promocode: BMLIVE for 10% off everything in our store! https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost revisit replace-by-fee (RBF). As they mentioned in Bitcoin, Explained episode 65, the upcoming Bitcoin Core release — Bitcoin Core 24.0 — includes the option to switch on “full RBF”, but this has caused some commotion in the Bitcoin community since the recording of that episode. Aaron and Sjors explain what this commotion has been about, and they highlight some of the new arguments for and against (full) RBF. RBF has been the topic of a previous Bitcoin, Explained episode: episode 26. In this new episode, therefore, Aaron and Sjors don’t explain in-depth on what RBF is, exactly, or how it works. They do however very briefly summarize its most important aspects. Aaron and Sjors then go on to explain why Bitcoin Core developers originally decided to include this feature, and they discuss some of the arguments for and against (full) RBF that came up at the time and since then. These include the effect of RBF on “pinning attacks” (a type of attack that is especially relevant for the Lightning Network and other Layer Two protocols), the relative safety of accepting unconfirmed transactions today, privacy-related arguments concerning the “opt-in” flag that RBF transactions currently use, the detrimental effects of monitoring the network for potential double spends, and more.   Aaron and Sjors also discuss the pros and cons of including RBF as an optional feature and thus letting node operators decide for themselves how their node deals with conflicting unconfirmed transactions. Sjors outlines why, in some cases, giving users more options could have detrimental effects on the health of the Bitcoin network, and considers whether the option to include the RBF option is such a case.   Finally, Aaron and Sjors briefly discuss an initiative by full RBF advocate Peter Todd to incentivize miners to apply full RBF logic to their transaction selection.   THIS EPISODE’S SPONSORS: Voltage - https://voltage.cloud/ Bitcoin 2023 Miami - https://b.tc/conference/ Bitcoin Magazine - https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/ Bitcoin Magazine Pro - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/tags/bitcoin-magazine-pro   Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount!  https://b.tc/conference/2023 Use promocode: BMLIVE for 10% off everything in our store! https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost speak with Sam Wouters, a research analyst at River Financial. River operates the fourth largest node on the Lightning network, and Sam recently published a report detailing unique insights from this Lightning node. At the start of the episode, Sjors first gives a brief update on the bug that brought down LND nodes, discussed in episode 66. He confirms that his assessment of the cause was correct, and explains that a very similar bug has brought down LND once more since recording of the last episode. Aaron and Sjors then go on to ask Sam about the contents of his report, with a focus on three subsections of the report in particular. First, Aaron, Sjors and Sam discuss the current status of fees and liquidity. Sam explains that large Lightning nodes can earn a “return on investment” of several percentages per year by routing payments over the network, but that this does require active channel maintenance to manage liquidity.   Second, Aaron, Sjors and Sam discuss why some Lightning payments fail. Sam explains that the success rate of Lightning payments is very high compared to just a few years ago, but that there are two main reasons why payments sometimes do still fail: payment timeouts, and a lack of available routes. The trio speculates why this might be the case. Lastly, Sam outlines some of the challenges and concerns related to running Lightning infrastructure for businesses.   THIS EPISODE’S SPONSORS: Voltage - https://voltage.cloud/ Bitcoin 2023 Miami - https://b.tc/conference/ Bitcoin Magazine - https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/ Bitcoin Magazine Pro - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/tags/bitcoin-magazine-pro   Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2023 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount!  https://b.tc/conference/2023 Use promocode: BMLIVE for 10% off everything in our store! https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/