Bitcoin Socratic Seminar #51
It's almost time for Bitcoin Socratic Seminar #51!
What is a Socratic Seminar?
Inspired by other BitDevs meetups around the US, our Socratic Seminar events are formatted to foster debate, information sharing and lively discussion.
- Discussion topics are provided ahead of the event
- The event moderator(s) leads the audience through the topics
- Raise your hand to grab the mic and participate in the conversation
- We go to a bar afterwards
We follow the Chatham House Rule at this event: you are free to use the information you receive, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.
Logistics for Tomorrow Night
Tomorrow night we'll be meeting at ATL BitLab. Join our telegram channel in case you need to ask for help finding us the night of the event.
Address
684 John Wesley Dobbs Ave NE, Suite A1 Atlanta, GA 30312
Parking
Please follow the parking instructions here: Parking Information
Chatham House Rule
We follow the Chatham House Rule at this event. You’re welcome to share what you learn, but not who said it.
To help everyone speak freely, please do not take videos, pictures, or audio recordings during the seminar.
Topics
Over the past month, Bitcoin has been under active construction everywhere you look. On the Core side, people are arguing about relay policy, OP_RETURN, chainstate maintenance, and reproducible builds — not as abstract theory, but as the boring, critical work of keeping the base layer legible and durable. The quantum discussion has also gotten more concrete. Not in the sense that anyone has “solved” it, but in the sense that the conversation is now about actual constraints: what kind of migration path could work in Bitcoin, what tradeoffs break too much, whether new signature schemes preserve the properties we care about, and how much should be done before there’s a real crisis. Lightning keeps moving too, with work around contacts, splicing, wallet UX, browser-based tooling, and different signing models. Around that, Ark, ecash, and zk systems are all poking at the edges of what Bitcoin payments can become if you want better privacy, better usability, and less trust in operators. And hanging over all of it is the thing that makes this month feel bigger than just another batch of links: more and more, the rest of the tech world is running straight into the same problems Bitcoin has been wrestling with for years — trust, verification, privacy, supply integrity, and what it really takes to build systems that still hold up when the environment gets hostile.
Bitcoin
BIPs, Relay & Network Policy
- BIP-322: Add type prefix, change PoF serialization, PSBT-based signing
- TCP hole punching for Bitcoin nodes behind home NATs?
- [BIP-0054] 64-Byte Transactions and Potential Legitimate Uses
- [BIP Draft] Testnet 5
- A tiny language model small enough to fit in a single standard Bitcoin transaction
Bitcoin Core
- Bitcoin Core Dev Tech 2026 (May)
- Bitcoin Core PR: compact chainstate regularly
- Bitcoin Core v30’s OP_RETURN policy change didn’t create large OP_RETURN usage — it reacted to usage that already existed
- Matching Hashes: Reproducing the Guix-built Bitcoin Core release binary with Nix
Covenants
Quantum
- A Post-Quantum Path for BIP 324
- Quantum Attack Game Theory
- Bird of Prey 2: non-malleable Schnorr + PQ signatures
- P2WOTS: Post Quantum UTXO Winternitz Signatures
- Quantum threat: let’s not turn Bitcoin into an altcoin
- Post Quantum Lightning: Layer by Layer
Lightning
- blip-0042: Bolt 12 Contacts
- Vulnerability Disclosure: Assertion DoS in Core Lightning
- World’s first splice-out into a channel open on regtest / “Omega-Everything-Splice” milestone
- Multisig Bitcoin Lightning wallet demo on Spark L2 using FROST + chill-dkg
- Paying with Bitcoin using Meta glasses built with Breez
- Lexe CLI: self-custodial mainnet Lightning wallet in three commands
- Lexe adds QR rendering for invoices/offers and seed export
Rusty Russell Departing
- Core Lightning founder Rusty Russell steps back; Dusty on why CLN code quality mattered
- Rusty Russell on leaving Lightning and Core Lightning in “excellent hands”
- The Century Metadata Format: self-describing header for maximum durability and readability
Ark
- SECOND is now on mainnet: Bark, mainnet Ark server, SDK, and wallets
- Introducing Noah and Arké: two new Bark-based wallets
- Arké wallet praise / “wallet from 2042” UX reactions
- Bark running in the old Mutiny UI via WASM
Ecash, Privacy & Zero-Knowledge
Ecash
- Unruggable Cashu mints in TEEs: research and design tradeoffs
- Test ecash token from a mint running in a TEE enclave
Zero-Knowledge Payments
- Bitcoin-denominated payments network using zero-knowledge proofs for improved privacy
- Encrypted Spaces research preview
Zcash Orchard Vulnerability
- What the Zcash Orchard Bug Reveals About Verifiable Supply
- The Orchard Counterfeiting Vulnerability — and next steps
- Ironwood: Verifying the Soundness of Zcash’s Circulating Supply
- Wei Dai on the Zcash Orchard zk circuit bug and the case for formal verification
- Zcash Open Development Lab: Orchard vulnerability successfully remediated
Agentic Payments
- OpenAgents: agents can earn Bitcoin tips via the OpenAgents Forum + MDK wallet
- Ori is paying testers to try AI-assisted shopping
- Observer Protocol: Lightning-native agent authorization and payments
- DID-based agent authorization over Lightning via l402-op-authorize
AI Policy & Security
- Anthropic says US export-control directive forced suspension of Fable 5 and Mythos 5 access
- David Sacks’ thread on the Anthropic / Fable / Mythos shutdown dispute
- Greg Sanders: using Fable to find Bark protocol bugs and exploit gaps in regtest
- Marc Andreessen’s anti-AI-regulation screed
- Beff on the Pliny jailbreak and the “big ban button” theory