Episode Details

Broadcasting live from ATL BitLab on Friday, March 13th, 2026, Stephen DeLorme and Alex Lewin cover Matt Corallo's 24-bit nonce space BIP moving to draft PR (fast-tracking good ideas), Dahlia's cross-input signature aggregation accepted at Eurocrypt (holy grail cryptography), and BDK 3.0 release candidate after years of development (SQLite migration unlocking new features).

Protocol developments include Rusty Russell requesting BIP numbers for Great Script Restoration proposals (reactivating opcodes with var ops budget for safe execution), Cold Card's proof of reserves feature via BIP 322 (cryptographic verification supporting Taproot), and Jonathan Harvey-Buiselle fixing Lightning gossip with mini-sketch (set reconciliation from Bitcoin mempool adapted for efficient peer sync).

Lightning updates: LND merges onion message forwarding after years of BOLT 12 debate (enabling native static offers), VTXO verification standard released (Arc Sovereign Audit tool visualizes sovereignty maps), and Arc Labs raises $5.2M led by Tether (programmable Bitcoin narrative sparks protocol fatigue discussion). The hosts debate standards adoption mechanics—Walmart forces partners vs grassroots—and observe Coinbase Base, Binance Smart Chain success through business leverage rather than open specs.

AI and Bitcoin development: AJ Towns experiments with Claude Code for PR review (quiz approach adds brain power vs sycophantic approval), highlights sycophancy problem in AI code review, and shares principles for effective AI-assisted development. Rob Hamilton's viral tweet resurfaces 1979 IBM principle: "A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision." Privacy tools emerge with Crest building on Citrea rollup (Ethereum Nocturne fork), and Bitcoin crosses 20 million coins mined milestone.

Topics Covered ⛏️ Matt Corallo: 24-Bit Nonce Space BIP

• BIP 320 has 16 bits, miners already using seven timestamp bits
• Draft PR already open from Antoine—moving incredibly fast
• Speedrun potential: good technical ideas move quickly in Bitcoin Core
• Stephen jokes about Bitcoin fork with zero nonce bits

🔐 Dahlia: Cross-Input Signature Aggregation

• Holy grail problem: aggregate signatures across multiple UTXOs being spent
• Reduces blockchain bloat for multi-input transactions
• Paper accepted at Eurocrypt—rare Bitcoin crypto recognition
• Blockstream and Ledger collaboration
• Alex: "The government hates Eurocrypt apparently"

📦 BDK 3.0 Release Candidate

• First RC after only two major releases since 2018
• SQLite migration adds new wallet database table (breaking change)
• Breaking changes unblock long-awaited features
• Used to be called Magical Bitcoin, supported by Spiral
• Thunderbiscuit's React Native bindings architecture copied by Fedimint SDK

📜 Great Script Restoration - Rusty Russell Requests BIP Numbers

• Reactivating opcodes Satoshi disabled due to security concerns
• Var ops budget: assign computational cost to each opcode
• Currently transaction size proxies for verification cost
• New approach: calculate actual CPU cost per opcode
• Two BIPs ready for publication after three years of work
• Bitcoin++ Austin 2024: Rusty's keynote converted everyone to this covenant approach

💳 Cold Card: Proof of Reserves via BIP 322

• Cryptographic proof you control funds without spending them
• Works with Taproot and Schnorr signatures (not just ECDSA)
• Stephen and Alex race Claude/Grok to verify Schnorr support—Claude wins
• Supported in Sparrow Wallet, firmware update pending
• BIP exists but not yet merged into Bitcoin Core
• Perfect for audits, transparency reports, flexing reserves

⚡ Lightning Gossip: Mini-Sketch Optimization

• Jonathan Ha