43:28

Ep. 95 Oct 7, 2024

Episode 95: Bitcoin Core 28

In Bitcoin, Explained 95, Aaron and Sjors discuss the new Bitcoin Core 28.0 release. Specifically, they cover upgrades to Bitcoin’s testnet (testnet 4), new mempool policies, full RBF integration, the introduction of assume UTXO, improved wallet migration support and the implementation of block file XOR. https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/ Release notes: ⁠https://bitcoincore.org/en/releases/28.0/⁠ Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction and Coinkite sponsor 00:04:21 Bitcoin Core 28 and Testnet 4 00:12:04 Mempool fees and Lightning channel closes 00:17:53 One-parent, one-child package relay 00:23:27 V3 transactions and TRUC policy 00:27:18 Pay-to-anchor outputs for fee bumping 00:30:19 Full RBF becomes the default 00:33:59 AssumeUTXO on mainnet 00:36:55 Migrating legacy wallets to descriptors 00:39:28 Block file XOR and antivirus protection This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the COLDCARD. Aaron’s Nostr: ⁠npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3

1:00:43

Ep. 94 Jul 7, 2024

Episode 94: Silent Payments part 2

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors welcome Ruben Somsen and Josie to the show to discuss BIP 352, their now-finalized Bitcoin Improvement Proposal for Silent Payments. As previously discussed in episode 58, Silent Payments use a special type of addresses that allow senders to generate public keys for transaction recipients, in such a way that these recipients can in turn generate the associated private keys. This benefits privacy, as Bitcoin users can freely share a static address, without this resulting in address reuse on the Bitcoin blockchain. Aaron, Sjors, Ruben and Josie recap how this works. and discuss some of the implementation details for the BIP, including how light clients can utilize Silent Payments, how these payments are made compatible with CoinJoin, and an extra feature called “labels”. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome, guests and CoinKite sponsor 00:01:21 BIP 352: from proposal to implementation 00:06:46 How silent payments protect address privacy 00:09:00 Shared secrets, scan keys and spend keys 00:18:11 Scanning the blockchain for incoming payments 00:22:46 Private light clients, indexing and compact filters 00:35:23 The Hotel California problem: expiry and revocation 00:39:30 CoinJoin, hardware wallets and verifiable shared secrets 00:48:02 Labels: identifying payments without extra scanning 00:55:37 Wallet adoption and implementation roadmap === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard. Aaron’s Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3 Ruben’s Twitter: @SomsenRuben Josie’s Twitter: @josibake If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com. https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/

51:00

Ep. 93 May 29, 2024

Episode 93: The Great Consensus Cleanup Revival (And an Update on the Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet Arrests)

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss the Great Consensus Cleanup Revival soft fork(s). This proposal would fix some known bugs in the Bitcoin protocol, specifically the timewarp vulnerability, large block validation times, 64 byte transactions and BIP 30 verification. Sjors also provides a quick update on the court case against Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev, and places this in the context of the recent arrests of Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction and COLDCARD sponsor 00:01:49 Tornado Cash conviction and developer liability 00:07:13 Samourai Wallet arrests, Whirlpool and Ricochet 00:13:40 The Great Consensus Cleanup Revival 00:16:49 Timewarp attacks and the proposed fix 00:26:47 Slow scripts and block validation limits 00:32:49 64-byte transactions and Merkle tree ambiguity 00:45:04 Duplicate coinbases: BIP 30 and BIP 34 00:48:27 Soft fork activation and future Bitcoin upgrades === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard Aaron’s Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3 If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com. https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/

35:39

Ep. 92 Apr 10, 2024

Episode 92: Bitcoin Core 27.0

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors explain what new features are included in the upcoming Bitcoin Core 27.0 release. https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoin-devwiki/wiki/27.0-Release-Candidate-Testing-Guide Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome and Coinkite: OPENDIME 00:01:15 Bitcoin Core 27.0 and the release process 00:06:25 Deprecating libbitcoinconsensus and the kernel project 00:10:39 Saving the mempool and avoiding antivirus false positives 00:17:15 BIP 324: encrypted connections by default 00:20:39 Removing network-adjusted time 00:24:49 Windows hardware wallet signing disabled 00:27:43 CoinGrinder: coin selection during high fees 00:33:21 Testing the release and maintaining older versions === This episode’s sponsor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠CoinKite⁠⁠⁠⁠, maker of the ColdCard Aaron’s Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@AaronvanW⁠⁠⁠⁠ Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@provoost⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3 If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com. ⁠https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/

42:45

Ep. 91 Mar 31, 2024

Episode 91: Splicing

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors are once more joined by Breez developer Jesse de Wit, this time to explain splicing. Splicing allows users of the Lightning Network to effectively add or remove funds from an active channel, allowing for continuous payment and routing activity. Aaron, Sjors and Jesse discuss what challenges this entails, and how these challenges are overcome. At the beginning of the episode, Sjors also gives a brief update on the ongoing TornadoCash trial in the Netherlands, and he addresses a recent block mined by Mara Pool. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome, COLDCARD Q and Jesse de Wit 00:02:21 Tornado Cash trial update 00:09:33 MARA Pool’s graffiti block 00:12:20 What splicing adds to Lightning channels 00:15:15 Replacing the funding UTXO and tracking both channel states 00:24:06 Gossip and routing after a splice 00:27:51 Quiescence: pausing updates to negotiate a splice 00:30:28 Interactive transactions and RBF fee bumps 00:34:17 Splicing specifications and implementation status 00:40:26 Chaining unconfirmed splices === This episode’s sponsor: ⁠⁠⁠CoinKite⁠⁠⁠, maker of the ColdCard Jesse’s Twitter: ⁠@WitDeJesse⁠ Jesse’s Nostr: npub18hwpk5qep3ptnmzatq22ptwr9mth7ccrku56rdntwpxjxlkfyr2qrav8du Aaron’s Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@AaronvanW⁠⁠⁠ Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@provoost⁠⁠⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3 If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com. ⁠https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/⁠

36:59

Ep. 90 Feb 23, 2024

Episode 90: Asynchronous Lightning Payments

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors are joined by Breez developer Jesse de Wit to discuss asynchronous lightning payments. They explain why such payments would be useful, how they would work, and what building blocks are required to realize it. In the process, Aaron, Sjors and Jesse also cover the basics of PTLCs and Trampoline Payments. Chapters 00:00:00 Opening and CoinKite sponsor 00:00:54 Jesse de Wit and Lightning development 00:03:45 Why Lightning needs asynchronous payments 00:10:40 Reusable invoices and PTLCs 00:17:14 Holding payments and coordinating with onion messages 00:23:42 Trampoline payments and routing retries 00:27:59 Dependence on Lightning service providers 00:30:02 Implementation prerequisites and timeline 00:34:27 Upgrade concerns and onion-message tradeoffs === This episode’s sponsor: ⁠⁠CoinKite⁠⁠, maker of the ColdCard Jesse’s Twitter: @WitDeJesse Jesse’s Nostr: npub18hwpk5qep3ptnmzatq22ptwr9mth7ccrku56rdntwpxjxlkfyr2qrav8du Aaron’s Twitter: ⁠⁠@AaronvanW⁠⁠ Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: ⁠⁠@provoost⁠⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3

37:44

Ep. 89 Jan 22, 2024

Episode 89: B-money and RPOW

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss two more electronic cash projects that predate Bitcoin: Wei Dai’s b-money and Hal Finney’s RPOW. As detailed in Aaron’s new book, The Genesis Book, these systems introduced design elements that were later utilized by Satoshi Nakamoto. Aaron and Sjors explain what these elements are, and how the inspired Bitcoin’s design. To buy Aaron’s new book, visit www.thegenesisbook.com. Mentioned: B-money (archive link): https://web.archive.org/web/20050211031649/http://www.eskimo.com/~weidai/bmoney.txt RPOW (archive link): https://nakamotoinstitute.org/finney/rpow/index.html Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction and COLDCARD sponsor 00:01:37 Wei Dai’s b-money and its cypherpunk origins 00:04:57 Shared ledgers, double spending and server consensus 00:12:34 Monetary policy and stable purchasing power 00:17:34 Proof-of-work auctions and b-money’s legacy 00:22:46 Hal Finney’s RPOW: reusable proof of work 00:29:14 Remote attestation and trust in IBM 00:34:55 Why RPOW never took off === This episode’s sponsor: ⁠CoinKite⁠, maker of the ColdCard Aaron’s Twitter: ⁠@AaronvanW⁠ Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: ⁠@provoost⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3 If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com ⁠https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/

45:28

Ep. 88 Jan 3, 2024

Episode 88: Hashcash and Bit Gold

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss two electronic cash projects that predate Bitcoin: Adam Back’s Hashcash and Nick Szabo’s Bit Gold. As detailed in Aaron’s new book, The Genesis Book, these systems introduced design element that were later utilized by Satoshi Nakamoto. Aaron and Sjors explain what these elements are, and how they inspired Bitcoin’s design. To buy Aaron’s new book, visit ⁠www.thegenesisbook.com⁠. Mentioned: * 1992 Dwork & Naor: Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail * 2002 Back: Hashcash - A Denial of Service Counter-Measure * Bit Gold: Bitcoin Magazine article (1998) * One-way function: Wikipedia * Secure-benchmark function: Intrapolynomial Cryptography (1999) Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction and CoinKite sponsor 00:01:06 The Genesis Book and Bitcoin’s precursors 00:04:31 Hashcash: fighting spam and protecting anonymous email 00:07:19 Dwork and Naor’s early proof of work 00:13:33 How Adam Back’s Hashcash works 00:16:27 Why Bitcoin mining needs a lottery 00:20:09 Secure benchmark functions and hardware advantages 00:27:47 Bit Gold: creating and transferring digital scarcity 00:31:31 Ownership registries, double spending and Sybil attacks 00:38:08 Fungibility, inflation and Bit Gold banking === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard Aaron’s Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3 If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/