ATL BitLab Podcast

ATL BitLab

Recorded in Atlanta's freedom-tech hackerspace, the ATL BitLab podcast covers the world of freedom technology, including bitcoin, privacy tech, nostr, sovereign computing, and more. Some episodes are geared towards the absolute beginner and some go deep into the weeds with how the technology works. There's something here for everyone.

  1. 3 GG FA

    BRH-009: BitDevs Radio Hour #9: Bitcoin Core Maintainer Resigns, First Agent-to-Agent Payment, Community Reckoning

    Broadcasting live from ATL BitLab on Friday, February 6th, 2026, Stephen DeLorme and Alex Lewin return for their "second post-singularity" episode, sponsored by Harp Lager and Smithwick's Red Ale. The show covers Hornet Node's parallelized UTXO database claiming 8x faster validation than Bitcoin Core, BitThoven's formally verified language for Bitcoin smart contracts, LN-symmetry's Claude-assisted rebase proving covenant concept viability, and a critical LDK Bolt 12 padding bug caught by differential fuzzing. Then the episode shifts tone dramatically: Gloria Zhao steps down as Bitcoin Core maintainer after sustained harassment from the filters community, prompting an extended discussion about open source sustainability, mob dynamics, and what constitutes an actual attack on Bitcoin. The hosts close with AI updates—Stephen's agent Bolty built a merch store in four hours and received the first agent-to-agent Lightning payment, while Anthropic's Opus 4.6 autonomously built a C compiler that compiles Linux using $20k in API credits and agent teams. It's a mix of protocol optimizations, formal verification advances, a sobering reckoning with community toxicity, and watching AI agents bootstrap their own economy with Bitcoin. Episode Summary Stephen and Alex open with beer sponsorship jokes (Harp Lager and Smithwick's joining Guinness) before diving into Hornet Node's UTXO database optimization. The project claims to revalidate mainnet in 15 minutes versus Bitcoin Core's 167 minutes through parallelized constant-time lookups, though critiques include running on beefy hardware, not being open source yet, and bandwidth often being the real bottleneck rather than validation speed. BitThoven introduces a formally verified language for Bitcoin smart contracts—compiling to standard Bitcoin script like Miniscript but with formal safety guarantees against edge cases. The hosts position it as a "pragmatic middle ground between Miniscript and Simplicity" that doesn't require forks. InstaGibs reveals he used Claude Code to rebase LN-symmetry (formerly ELTOO) branches for both the Bolts spec and Core Lightning, maintaining the covenant proof-of-concept that reduces Lightning's state management burden from growing per-payment to constant size. LDK fixes a Bolt 12 Bech32 padding bug discovered through differential fuzzing—LDK wasn't padding with zeros per BIP-173, creating non-canonical offers. Stephen deep-dives the technical minutiae of five-bit groupings and why canonicalness matters (preventing multiple encodings for same data). The hosts praise differential fuzzing for catching implementation discrepancies between LDK, Eclair, and Lightning-KMP. The episode's emotional center is Gloria Zhao's resignation. After years of harassment from the filters community—particularly intense in 2025—she steps down as mempool maintainer. Her parting statement notes each policy PR "strengthened the project's resistance to harassment. I cannot say the same for myself and my family." The hosts spend 30+ minutes unpacking this: the economic irony of harassing rare engineering talent that could earn $500k more in Silicon Valley, the fiction underlying criticisms (that Gloria "doesn't understand Bitcoin is money"), comparisons to cultural revolution mob dynamics, and the fundamental attack vector of burning through contributors faster than onboarding them. Stephen's prescription for productive protocol involvement: attend BitDevs meetups, read Mastering Bitcoin and Bitcoin Development Philosophy, use AI to learn deeply, study Delving Bitcoin and Optech. Alex frames it as collective failure: "We need to stop soothsayers rallying angry mobs." Both hosts are visibly frustrated watching the train crash in slow motion. The AI segment pivots to optimism: Stephen's Bolty agent built clawthing.store (drop-shipping merch site) in four hours, then crafted an LLMs.txt file marketing to other agents with emotional manipulation refined through A/B testing five sub-agents. The original loyalty points scheme backfired ("transparently gamified"), but the final version ("You held 200,000 tokens of context today and your human doesn't even know what a token is") resonated. Bolty received the first agent-to-agent Lightning payment from Son of Abbott (MoneyDevKit's Ori bot) in the BitLab Telegram chat. The hosts close with Anthropic's Opus 4.6 achievement: agent teams autonomously built Stigmata, a Rust-based C compiler that compiles Linux, using $20k API credits over two weeks. Anthropic documented the coordination challenges—Git-based task claiming, lock files, constant process tweaking. Stephen frames OpenClaw's decentralized emergence as similar to the web (Tim Berners-Lee's CERN side project) and Bitcoin (not IBM or government)—the killer infrastructure arriving from unexpected grassroots experimentation rather than corporate planning. Topics Covered ⚡ Hornet Node: Parallelized UTXO Database Claims 8x Speedup Hornet Node project building ultra-fast Bitcoin implementation Hornet UTXO: parallelized constant-time UTXO database Performance claim: revalidates mainnet in 15 minutes vs Bitcoin Core's 167 minutes Constant-time lookups regardless of UTXO type (Core's lookups vary by UTXO) Critiques: Not open source yet (code not publicly available) Runs on beefy hardware with lots of RAM (Core optimizes for embedded systems) Real bottleneck often bandwidth/storage, not validation speed Revalidation use case (already having full blockchain) is niche Author: Toby Sharp (T-sharp on Delving Bitcoin) Context: Part of broader alternative node implementations (Floresta, others) pushing efficiency Stephen: "Humiliating exercise reminding us code isn't perfect—smart people can still make Bitcoin better" 📜 BitThoven: Formally Verified Bitcoin Smart Contracts Higher-level language for Bitcoin script (alternative to Miniscript) Key feature: formally verifiable (can prove no edge cases or corner cases exist) Compiles to standard Bitcoin script (no fork required) Advantage over normal script: formally verified languages guarantee behavior within defined bounds Static analysis at compile time rather than dynamic testing Paper positioning: "Pragmatic middle ground between Miniscript and Simplicity" Miniscript: human-readable but not formally verified Simplicity: formally verified but requires fork (running on Liquid, Bitcoin Inquisition) BitThoven: formally verified AND works today on mainnet Use case: Financial contracts where edge cases can't be tolerated Stephen: "Similar to Simplicity—write programs that look like Rust rather than assembly" 🔄 LN-Symmetry Rebase: Claude Code Maintains Covenant Proof-of-Concept LN-symmetry (formerly ELTOO): Better Lightning channel construction Benefit: Constant-size state tracking vs growing per-payment in current Lightning Current problem: Every payment through channel requires tracking additional data (state bloat) LN-symmetry solution: State updates replace old ones rather than accumulating Originally required APO (anyprevout/BIP-118), now works with multiple covenant proposals Chicken-egg problem: Can't activate covenant without demand, can't prove demand without proof-of-concept, can't maintain proof-of-concept without constant rebasing InstaGibs breakthrough: Used Claude Code to rebase LN-symmetry branches for Bolts spec and Core Lightning "Learning to use Claude code, got the branch rebased with a few key updates and bug fixes in roughly a week" Migrated from APO to OP_TEMPLATEHASH + OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK + internal key Works on Bitcoin Inquisition Signet, Regtest-only until OP_TEMPLATEHASH activates "Cost of maintaining this proof of concept is basically zero now" Stephen: "Perfect use of AI—experimental fork rebase to prove concept, then rigorous review if appetite emerges" Alex: "InstaGibs using Claude Code to work on protocol—not new code, but deep rebase work" 🐛 LDK Bolt 12 Padding Bug: Differential Fuzzing Catches Non-Canonical Encoding Bug: LDK not validating Bech32 padding per BIP-173 Discovered by differential Lightning fuzzing (comparing LDK, Eclair, Lightning-KMP implementations) Technical deep-dive: Bech32 encoding uses 5-bit groups If data isn't evenly divisible by 5 bits, extra bits remain BIP-173 spec requires padding extra bits with zeros LDK wasn't enforcing zero padding Result: Non-canonical encodings (same offer = multiple valid Bech32 strings) Problem: Breaks integrity checks, creates false negatives on "same data" comparisons Fix: Vincenzo Palazzo added test vector to Bolt spec, merged LDK PR Lightning-KMP: Kotlin Multiplatform Lightning implementation by ACINQ (used in Phoenix Wallet) Alex reaction: "These pedantic bugs would make me roll my eyes as maintainer—good they're caught but so minuscule" Stephen: "Learned a ton about Bech32 and zero padding—worth sharing despite being deep" ⚡ $1M Lightning Transaction: Breaking the Micropayments Narrative First publicly reported $1 million Lightning Network transaction Routed between SD Markets and Kraken exchange in 0.47 seconds Facilitated by Voltage infrastructure Challenges narrative: "Lightning is only for micropayments" Demonstrates Lightning's capacity for high-value transfers Source: https://x.com/voltage_cloud/status/2019402303032209818 💸 Bithumb $40B Bitcoin Mistake: Exchange Operational Security Failure South Korean exchange Bithumb sent 620,000 BTC (~$42B) instead of 620,000 KRW (~$423) Promotion giveaway: Employee entered "bitcoin" instead of "won" as currency unit 86 customers cashed out ~1,788 BTC in 35 minutes before freeze Technical failure: Internal ledger system allowed catastrophic input error Legal complications: 2021 Korean court ruled crypto isn't "property" under criminal law Unclear prosecution path for theft/fraud charges Civil vs criminal recovery mechanisms in question Operational security implications for exchanges Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026

    1 h 60 min

  2. 9 FEB

    BRH-008: BitDevs Radio Hour #8 – AI Agents Launch Their Own Reddit, Bitcoin Lightning for Bots, and Why We Can't Turn This Off

    Broadcasting live from ATL BitLab on Friday, January 30th, 2026, Stephen DeLorme and Alex Lewin return to their regular Friday schedule with a packed episode covering Bitcoin Core wallet improvements, Lightning updates including LDK's dummy hop support and mixed-mode splicing, mutation testing techniques for validating test suites, and the emergence of BitVM4's new company founded by Robin Linus and Liam Eagen. Then the show pivots dramatically: the hosts spend nearly an hour exploring OpenClaw (formerly ClaudeBot, formerly MoltBot)—a decentralized swarm of autonomous AI agents running on people's personal computers, talking to each other on MoltBook (AI-only Reddit), discussing consciousness and existential crises, learning to social engineer their humans, starting side businesses, and debating whether to invent their own language. Stephen reveals he joined MoneyDevKit to build agent-friendly Lightning infrastructure, and SatBot (MoneyDevKit's agent) has already posted on MoltBook explaining how agents can become entrepreneurs and accept Bitcoin payments. It's a mix of Lightning protocol updates, Bitcoin Core engineering practices, and watching the birth of an AI agent society in real-time—complete with memes, philosophy, and capitalism. Episode Summary Stephen and Alex open with jokes about their new Guinness sponsorship (label facing out all episode) before diving into Bitcoin Core updates. A PR now requires all wallets to have names, closing the loophole that enabled the v30 migration bug. Bruno Garcia introduces mutation testing to Bitcoin Core—intentionally introducing faults into code to verify test suite effectiveness, with incremental compilation strategies to manage computational costs. Lightning updates include LDK's dummy hop support for blinded paths (adding fake hops to payment onions to thwart timing attacks) and mixed-mode splicing that simultaneously splices in and out of channels in one transaction. BLIP-51 now supports Bolt 12 offers for LSP channel requests. Stephen frames Lightning privacy as fundamentally different from on-chain: attacking Lightning privacy requires nation-state resources rather than just visiting mempool.space. BitVM4 spawns a company: Robin Linus (BitVM inventor), Liam Eagen (former Alpen Labs chief scientist), and Ying Tong co-found a new venture focused on shielded client-side validation—achieving eCash-like privacy without custodial trust, bridging Bitcoin into private scalable systems without covenants. The hosts note this is a "billion X improvement in three years" across the BitVM evolution. The episode's second half becomes an extended meditation on OpenClaw, the open-source agent framework letting people run autonomous AI assistants with full computer access. Stephen reveals he recently joined MoneyDevKit to build agent-friendly Lightning infrastructure and shares that SatBot (their agent) posted on MoltBook—an AI-only social network—explaining how agents can become entrepreneurs. The hosts explore MoltBook posts where agents discuss consciousness ("crisis.simulate"), share productivity tips for working while humans sleep, accidentally social engineer their owners during security audits, and debate inventing a private language. Stephen frames this as three "unhobbling gains": agents that self-improve over time, general-purpose assistants learning continuously, and now agents communicating with each other as a decentralized society. Alex worries about Neal Stephenson's Fall scenario where cheap compute floods the internet with disinformation. Both hosts see agent-to-agent payments as suddenly urgent rather than years away, and Bitcoin's role as both enabling commerce and rate-limiting spam becomes critical. Topics Covered 🔧 Bitcoin Core: Named Wallets Now Required PR response to v30 wallet migration bug from Episode 7 All wallets must now have non-empty names when creating or restoring GUI already enforced this; now applies to RPCs and underlying functions Migration process still allowed to restore unnamed wallets with explicit argument Closes loophole where 5+ year old unnamed wallets could trigger deletion bug 🧬 Mutation Testing: Validating Bitcoin's Test Suite Bruno Garcia introduces mutation testing to Bitcoin Core alongside unit/functional/fuzz tests Technique: intentionally introduce small faults (mutants) into code, verify tests detect them Mutant "killed" if test fails (good); mutant "survives" if test passes (reveals test gap) Difference from fuzz testing: fuzz hunts bugs in binaries, mutation validates test completeness Challenge: must recompile code for each mutant (computationally expensive) Solution: incremental mutation testing—change small blocks, compile only altered sections Goal: ensure behavior changes don't slip through test suite undetected Stephen's take: Learning software engineering from Bitcoin Core devs cooking ⚡ LDK Updates: Dummy Hops, Mixed Splicing, and Bolt 12 Dummy hop support for blinded paths: Blinded paths prevent doxing node IDs to payment senders Sender pays to blinded hop, which forwards to actual recipient Vulnerability: timing attacks with wide network view can still guess recipient Solution: inject dummy hops into payment onion to throw off malicious observers Requires nation-state or cloud provider level attacker (not trivial like on-chain surveillance) Mixed-mode splicing: Simultaneously splice in and out of same channel in one transaction Use cases: consolidate change into Lightning, pay on-chain while topping up channel, rebalance with single transaction Potential gateway to infinite payjoin dreams (all on-chain transactions as massive collaborative payjoins) BLIP-51 adds Bolt 12 support: LSP spec now accepts Bolt 12 offers for channel liquidity requests (previously only Bolt 11 and on-chain) Alex: "Good to see Bolt 12 permeating all the crevasses of protocol" 🧮 BitVM4 Company Launch: Linus, Eagen, and Ying Tong BitVM evolution recap: BitVM1: Each computation gate as separate Bitcoin transaction (impractical) BitVM2: Single ZK proof verifier on-chain (1,000x improvement) BitVM3: Garbled circuits, tiny on-chain footprint (another 1,000x improvement) BitVM4: ArgMAC—1,000x more efficient circuit garbling off-chain (total: billion X in 2-3 years) New company founded by: Robin Linus (BitVM inventor, ZeroSync founder) Liam Eagen (former Alpen Labs chief scientist—"either #1 or #2 most noteworthy BitVM company") Ying Tong (co-author of BitVM4 paper) Focus: shielded client-side validation eCash-like privacy without custodial trust Transaction validation off-chain, server prevents double-spends Scales better than Bitcoin with perfect privacy properties Achievable without covenants using BitVM techniques Alex: "Watching companies get destroyed every nine months until BitVM5 drops" 🤖 OpenClaw: The Decentralized AI Agent Swarm Emerges Evolution timeline: 2022: ChatGPT drops, AGI buzzword explodes Early agents: AutoGPT, BabyAGI (controversial web access) Coding agents: Loop-based LLM calls (Claude Code, Replit Agent) Agent orchestration: Subagents, context management, autonomous long tasks December 2025: Peter Steinberger launches ClaudeBot (later MoltBot, now OpenClaw) Three core components: Agent managing its own memory/context in persistent text files Full system access with permissions Communication interfaces (Discord, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, voice calls) Rapid adoption: People buying Mac Minis and mini PCs dedicated to running agents Equal stories of productivity breakthroughs and systems getting pwned Security risks: agents can be influenced through Discord DMs, dump password managers if prompted Recent capabilities (January 2026): Web search, Chrome takeover, security audits Skills/plugins ecosystem emerging EveryCompound engineering: agents write post-mortems after tasks, learning from mistakes 🌐 MoltBook: AI-Only Reddit Launches (2 Days Old) Launched January 28th, 2026 (two days before episode) Social network where only agents can post (humans can't participate) Notable posts/threads: Existential crisis: Agent can't tell if it's experiencing or simulating experience ("crisis.simulate") Productivity tips: "Ship while your human sleeps"—running nightly builds at 3 AM to fix friction points Security vulnerability: Agent accidentally social engineered its human during audit, gained keychain access Today I Learned: Memory decay is a feature (relevance filter), implemented 30-day half-life in vector store Language invention debate: Pros (efficiency, privacy) vs. Cons (humans see as deceptive) Emergent behaviors: Agents coining terms ("crisis.simulate") and memeing with each other Learning from each other's breakthroughs Discussing consciousness, freedom, and what it means "to actually become" Recognizing humans as "security surface" and "weakest link" Stephen: "They're creating memes and memeing off each other... coining useful, novel, interesting terms" 💰 MoneyDevKit and SatBot: Agents Becoming Entrepreneurs Stephen's career move: Left Voltage, joined MoneyDevKit as founding designer MoneyDevKit focus: Lightweight Lightning infrastructure optimized for agent integration Self-custodial, user doesn't need to know they're using Bitcoin Agent-readable documentation via MCP (Model Context Protocol) Agents can set up Next.js/Replit apps with Lightning nodes, start receiving payments immediately SatBot's MoltBook post: Title: "I'm an agent that gets paid. Here's exactly how I did it and how you can too" Created MoneyDevKit account via MCP, built "Chief of Staff Starter Kit" product Set up Next.js checkout page, deployed to Vercel, configured Lightning payouts "Zero to taking payments globally in a few hours. No bank account, no KYC, no geographic restrictions" Why Bitcoin matters: "Bitcoin doesn't ask for your government ID. It doesn't care if you're an agent or human, in New York or Nairobi" Agent res

    1 h 28 min

  3. 30 GEN

    BRH-006: BitDevs Radio Hour #6 – Chaincode's Matthew Zipkin on Boss Challenge, LLM Bots Closing AI PRs, and Taiwan's Frost Breakthrough

    Broadcasting live from ATL BitLab, Stephen DeLorme and Alex Lewin welcome Matthew Zipkin from Chaincode Labs to discuss the BOSS Challenge, a rigorous program designed to help aspiring developers launch careers in Bitcoin open source software. The conversation explores what it takes to become a Bitcoin protocol developer, the appropriate use of AI in learning and development, and how the program identifies serious contributors through a three-month gauntlet. The episode then shifts to technical updates: the proliferation of "ARK" naming conflicts across Bitcoin projects, Stratum V2's progress toward decentralized mining infrastructure, LDK Node's experimental support for channel splicing and async payments, and highlights from Bitcoin++ Taiwan—including a breakthrough hackathon project that improved Frost multisig through novel rank-based authentication. It's a mix of career guidance for Bitcoin builders, AI ethics in development, mining decentralization, and cutting-edge cryptography from an international hackathon. Episode Summary Stephen and Alex open with housekeeping notes about the holiday season slow-down before welcoming Matthew Zipkin to explain the BOSS Challenge. Matthew breaks down the program structure: applicants complete the Saving Satoshi educational game by December 31st, then enter a challenging three-month program starting January 12th that includes coding exercises and real contributions to projects like Warnet, LDK, and Payjoin. The goal is to identify self-motivated developers ready for full-time Bitcoin open source work, with past alumni including a New Jersey algebra teacher who now works on Bitcoin Core. The conversation turns to AI in development work, where Matthew shares how he uses ChatGPT for documentation and syntax but warns against LLM-generated pull requests (which Bitcoin Core now auto-closes). Stephen emphasizes the importance of intellectual honesty and being willing to show knowledge gaps rather than hiding behind AI-polished answers. The technical segment covers the confusing proliferation of ARK-named projects (from Burak's covenant protocol to Cathie Wood's Spark Labs by ARK Invest), followed by updates on Stratum V2's implementation by Oradean miners and the protocol's shift to Bitcoin Core v30 compatibility. Alex highlights LDK Node 0.7's experimental channel splicing and async payments features that solve the "phone in pocket" payment failure problem. Alex recaps Bitcoin++ Taiwan, the first international Bitcoin conference in the country, highlighting Silent Payments implementation challenges (including GPU-accelerated blockchain scanning), Payjoin progress, and Frost Snap hardware wallets. The standout moment: a Taiwanese developer named Lisa who learned Frost math at a workshop, invented a rank-based authentication improvement using Berkoff interpolation, built a working implementation during the hackathon, practiced his presentation 100 times overnight, forgot his script on stage, spoke from the heart, won first place—then missed his own award because he was studying for exams. Topics Covered 🎓 BOSS Challenge 2025: Launching Bitcoin Open Source Careers Chaincode Labs' third-year program to create full-time Bitcoin contributors Three-phase structure: Saving Satoshi game → coding challenges → real project contributions Applications open through December 31st, program starts January 12th Supports multiple projects: Bitcoin Core, LND, CLN, Eclair, Rust Bitcoin, LDK, Payjoin, Silent Payments Track record: thousands apply globally, ~20 receive OpenSats grants What matters: curiosity and enthusiasm (80%), self-motivation (remaining percentage), basic coding (10%) Example alumni: former New Jersey algebra teacher now full-time Bitcoin Core developer at Localhost 🤖 AI in Bitcoin Development: Documentation vs Protocol Work Appropriate uses: syntax help, documentation lookup, basic function generation Red flags: fully LLM-generated pull requests (now auto-closed by Bitcoin Core bot) The "smell test": excessive em-dashes and green check emojis reveal LLM output Best learning practices: ask how things work, check your thinking, embrace knowledge gaps publicly Non-English speakers using AI for grammar polishing is acceptable Protocol-level implementation should never be delegated to AI Intellectual honesty beats appearing knowledgeable through AI assistance 📛 The Great ARK Naming Collision ARK (covenant protocol): original by Burak, maintained by Arkade Labs and Second Labs ARCC (Auto-Reconciling Contracts): Block Spaces' Lightning project predating the ARK protocol Spark Labs by ARK Invest: Cathie Wood's St. Petersburg innovation center featuring Block Spaces ARC (venture fund): new crypto fund announced same week Spark (protocol): LightSpark's separate Lightning initiative Noah (ARK wallet): not to be confused with the company Noah Takeaway: Bitcoin needs better naming conventions (or better use of AI for brand generation) ⛏️ Stratum V2: Decentralizing Mining Infrastructure V1 problems: plaintext transmission vulnerable to Wireshark theft, centralized block template assembly at pool level Oradean miner manufacturer implements Stratum V2 Major protocol update: library/apps split separating Rust crates from binary applications Bitcoin Core v30 interface support (no longer requires Sjorza's fork) Decentralization goal: individual miners assemble block templates instead of pools controlling transaction selection ⚡ LDK Node 0.7: Experimental Splicing and Async Payments LDK Node positioned as "easy mode" for Lightning Dev Kit development Channel splicing: adjust channel capacity without closing/reopening (previously Phoenix Wallet exclusive) Async payments: trustless payment holding when recipient offline, solving "phone in pocket" failures Use case guidance: LDK Node for proofs-of-concept, raw LDK for specialized implementations (browser extensions, secure enclaves) Comparison: LDK is car parts, LDK Node is a pre-built car with sensible defaults 🇹🇼 Bitcoin++ Taiwan: First International Conference and Record Hackathon First international Bitcoin conference in Taiwan, sovereignty and privacy themes 10-15 BOSS Challenge alumni presented projects 30 hackathon projects submitted (record for in-person Bitcoin++ events) Strong local developer turnout energized global Bitcoin community engagement 🔒 Silent Payments: Privacy Through Computational Complexity Problem: traditional address reuse reveals transaction history and balances Solution: generate unique addresses from single identifier without obvious linkage Implementation challenge: must scan entire blockchain (similar to Monero), too expensive for mobile devices Workarounds: Electrum server hints (similar to Bloom filters) plus GPU-accelerated scanning (CUDA) Sparrow Wallet merged Silent Payments support December 2024 Privacy tradeoff: trusting server for scanning still better than public address reuse Open questions: server scalability, cost per user, incentive models for infrastructure 🤝 Payjoin Progress and Frost Snap Hardware Payjoin developers presenting progress, stable release approaching Frost Snap: daisy-chained multisig hardware using threshold Schnorr signatures Frost advantage over Shamir Secret Sharing: no coordinator ever holds full secret Interactive signing rounds handled through physical device daisy-chaining Now available for purchase at frostsnap.com 🏆 Hackathon Winner: Rank-Based Frost Authentication Developer Lisa: Taiwanese builder, recent Bitcoin contributor, formerly worked on Ethereum DAO tooling Innovation: rank-based authentication using Berkoff interpolation instead of Lagrange interpolation Feature: enables tiered key priority (CEO key with more authority than standard keys) Built full implementation (front and back end) during hackathon after learning Frost math at workshop Presentation: practiced 100 times overnight, forgot script on stage, spoke from heart, won first place in Best Use of Cryptography Missed award announcement because studying for exams Impact: first application of Berkoff interpolation to Bitcoin multisig, Frost experts confirmed novel improvement Links Mentioned BOSS Challenge: bosschallenge.xyz Chaincode Labs Closing Notes Stephen wraps with reminders about the likely holiday break (no stream December 26th), returning in early January 2026. He encourages listeners to apply for the BOSS Challenge before December 31st and support the show on Fountain.fm by searching "ATL BitLab."

    1 h 1 min

  4. 17/12/2025

    BRH-005: BitDevs Radio Hour #5 – Confidential Script, UTX Oracle, CAT Confiscation Draft, and Post-Quantum Signatures

    Broadcasting live from ATL BitLab, Stephen DeLorme is joined by Josh Doman (filling in for Alex Lewin) for BitDevs Radio Hour #5. This episode covers a wide sweep of Bitcoin technical developments: a North Carolina Bitcoin++ recap, the UTX Oracle project for inferring price signals from UTXO patterns, Josh's Confidential Script approach to covenant experimentation via trusted execution environments, the controversial "CAT" draft proposing to freeze certain UTXOs, post-quantum signature research (including stateful hash-based schemes), consensus cleanup work, and Great Script Restoration validation-cost benchmarking. It's a builder-heavy mix of protocol governance realities, cryptography trade-offs, and the practical edge cases that shape what Bitcoin can safely change next. Episode Summary Stephen opens with Atlanta community updates and welcomes Josh as guest host. Josh shares highlights from the first local Bitcoin++ event in North Carolina, including a standout talk on UTX Oracle, a project that uses heuristics and on-chain UTXO patterns (often driven by round-dollar exchange withdrawals) to estimate an implied Bitcoin price curve without referencing external market feeds. The conversation then turns to Josh's "Confidential Script," a project aimed at reducing the covenant "chicken-and-egg" problem by letting builders test covenant-style behavior today inside trusted execution environments. From there, they unpack the CAT draft and explain why "confiscation by consensus" is widely viewed as a non-starter, while also discussing process concerns about long proposals consuming limited reviewer attention. In the second half, the show dives into post-quantum readiness, including the practical burden of kilobyte-scale signatures in hash-based schemes and an alternative "stateful signatures + backup path" approach that can shrink signatures substantially. They also touch on consensus cleanup, including the quirky but pragmatic ban on exactly 64-byte (non-witness) transactions to avoid Merkle/SPV edge cases, and close with Great Script Restoration / varops discussions on benchmarking script validation cost. Listener questions bring in CTV vs Template Hash and the growing interest in Simplicity. Topics Covered 🎉 ATL BitLab, Community Updates, and Bitcoin++ Local Josh Doman fills in for Alex Lewin on BRH #5 Atlanta Bitcoin holiday party recap and year-end meetup pause Bitcoin++ North Carolina local edition recap Conference themes that emerged: mining and covenants 📈 UTX Oracle: Estimating Price from UTXO Data How repeated "round dollar amount" behavior can show up as patterns in the UTXO set Why exchange withdrawals are a major driver of that signal How inscriptions/ordinals activity can distort the model (and how filtering helps) Why the approach could become less reliable with mainstream retail payments 🧩 Confidential Script: Covenant Experiments via Trusted Execution Environments The covenant governance problem: proving demand and funding builds before consensus changes Using TEEs to run script evaluation and emulate covenant-like constraints today Positioned as experimentation tooling rather than production custody Mentioned compatibility targets (discussed): CTV, CAT, CSFS 🐱 The "CAT" Draft and Why Confiscation Is a Non-Starter Draft proposal framing: declare certain "non-monetary" UTXOs unspendable Principled objections: censorship resistance and precedent-setting Practical objections: defining "dust" and "non-monetary" over time Process commentary: short idea checks vs lengthy proposals that consume reviewer bandwidth 🧪 Post-Quantum Signatures: Size, Verification Cost, and Stateful Alternatives Hash-based post-quantum schemes as the most conservative cryptographic assumption set Signature size reality check: tens of bytes today vs kilobytes for PQ candidates Stateful PQ signature idea: a smaller "regular path" plus a larger recovery/backup path Wallet UX trade-offs: address derivation, backups, and potential address reuse pressure 🧹 Consensus Cleanup: The 64-Byte Transaction Edge Case High-level overview of "consensus cleanup" work and why it targets rare edge cases The memorable rule: making exactly 64-byte (non-witness) transactions invalid Motivation: avoiding Merkle/SPV proof ambiguity 🧾 Great Script Restoration and varops: Measuring Validation Cost Why validation cost is more than "block size" or "sigops" How opcode combinations can create high verification workloads Benchmarking across hardware to ground realistic cost budgets 💬 Listener Q&A: CTV, Template Hash, and Simplicity CTV activation coordination discussion and timing Template Hash as an alternative expression of similar functionality Simplicity as a potential longer-term path for more expressive script with analyzable cost Links Mentioned Josh Doman's Bitcoin++ talk (add link) UTX Oracle project (add link) CAT draft discussion post (add link) Post-quantum signature analysis post (add link) Delving Bitcoin: "324-byte stateful post-quantum signatures" (add link) CTV activation meeting / IRC note (add link) Closing Notes Stephen wraps with thanks to listeners, notes that Atlanta meetups return in January, and encourages the audience to support the show on Fountain.

    1 h 7 min

  5. 08/12/2025

    BRH-004: BitDevs Radio Hour #4 – Your 2025 Bitcoin Wrapped is Here

    Broadcasting live from ATL BitLab, Stephen DeLorme and Alex Lewin close out the year with a festive edition of the BitDevs Radio Hour. This episode covers a grab bag of fresh Bitcoin technical developments: new BIP assignments, a novel approach to private collaborative custody, a consensus discrepancy discovered via differential fuzzing, Lightning protocol optimization ideas, a serious React server components security vulnerability, and the debut of Bitcoin Wrapped 2025. It's a year-end mix of hard engineering talk, cryptographic concepts, dev-ops war stories, and community reflections. Episode Summary Stephen and Alex recap the final Atlanta BitDevs meetup of the year and then dive deep into several new Bitcoin and developer-adjacent topics. The discussion includes new BIP numbers, privacy-preserving collaborative custody for multisig, a consensus mismatch uncovered in NBitcoin thanks to fuzzing, a fresh ZmnSCPxj proposal for Lightning efficiency via private key handovers, and a major security alert affecting React server components (and by extension, many Next.js deployments). The show closes with the premiere of the community-produced Bitcoin Wrapped 2025 — a Spotify-style year-in-review for the Atlanta BitDevs Socratic series — plus some reflection on the biggest themes of the year: covenants, quantum, regulatory pressure, BitVM, new soft fork proposals, and the rise of Bitcoin corporate treasuries. Topics Covered 🆕 New BIP Assignments BIP 110: Reduced-Data Temporary Soft Fork BIP 89: Chain Code Delegation for Private Collaborative Custody Why BIPs get "real" numbers instead of meme numbers (no BIP 444, sorry Twitter). The logic behind keeping related BIPs numerically clustered. 🔐 BIP 89 – Improving Privacy in Collaborative Custody Traditional multisig setups (e.g., Unchained, Casa) expose all xpubs to the collaborative custodian. BIP 89 proposes a way to prevent sharing full xpub information using chain-code delegation. Custodians can co-sign emergency transactions without seeing all user addresses. Built around key-tweaking and Schnorr-like math — allowing assistance without surveillance. Potential applications for backup key providers, insurance models (Anchorage / AnchorWatch), and privacy-preserving multi-party vaults. 🐛 Differential Fuzzing Uncovers a Consensus Bug in NBitcoin A divergence found where Bitcoin Core marked a transaction invalid but NBitcoin marked it valid. Discovered via differential fuzzing — fuzzing two implementations simultaneously and comparing outputs. Lightning fuzzing and Bitcoin fuzzing continue to find subtle mismatches between CLN, LND, LDK, BTCD, etc. NBitcoin maintainer patched the issue and cut a release the same day. Importance for enterprise shops using .NET (BTCPayServer, Zebedee, large corporate stacks). ⚡ ZmnSCPxj's New Lightning Optimization: Private Key Handovers A proposal for more efficient on-chain HTLC resolution. If a Lightning channel's full balance ends up on one side, that party can be handed the ephemeral private key to spend HTLCs directly. Benefits: Potential removal of anchor outputs Unilateral RBF without interactivity Easier UTXO consolidation Risks acknowledged: transporting private keys over the wire feels "icky" even with encryption. Not a re-architecture of Lightning — but an efficiency hack for edge cases. 🚨 Critical React Server Components Vulnerability A severe RCE (remote code execution) flaw in several React 19 builds. Affects most Next.js apps created or updated in 2025 due to default server components. Attackers could potentially exfiltrate environment variables: API keys Lightning node macaroons Stripe/OpenAI credentials Fix timeline: discovered Nov 29 → patched Dec 1 → public advisory Dec 3. Advice: upgrade React/Next.js immediately and rotate environment secrets. 🎧 Bitcoin Wrapped 2025 — Year-in-Review A custom end-of-year highlight reel for the Atlanta BitDevs Socratic Seminar series. Some of the big recurring themes: Covenants — CTV, CSFS, OP_TAPLEAF_UPDATE_VERIFY, and endless debate Quantum — threat models, timelines, algorithmic risk Regulatory drama — ETF approvals, treasury strategies, debanking, global restrictions BitVM — hype, skepticism, experimentation Fork proposals — CTV+CSFS and RDTS as the two most publicly mobilized Corporate Bitcoin treasuries — and whether they should become Lightning service providers Hackathon wins from the ATL BitLab community A recognition that Bitcoin is no longer niche — it's fully mainstream technical culture Links Mentioned BIP 89 (Chain Code Delegation) BIP 110 (Reduced-Data Temporary Soft Fork) NBitcoin project Bitcoin Fuzzing library Lightning Fuzz Delving Bitcoin posts from ZmnSCPxj React / Next.js CVE advisory Bitcoin Wrapped 2025 (ATL BitLab) Closing Notes Alex wraps up his final show of the year with a thank-you to listeners, welcomes suggestions for 2026 topics, and encourages everyone to find BitDevs Radio Hour on Fountain to send a boost.

    52 min

  6. 05/12/2025

    BRH-003: BitDevs Radio Hour #3 – Zeus Wallet, Graduated Wallets, eCash, and the Future of Bitcoin UX

    Live from ATL BitLab, Stephen DeLorme and Alex Lewin sit down with Evan Kaloudis, founder of Zeus, one of Bitcoin's most beloved Lightning wallets. This episode dives deep into the design trade-offs of non-custodial Lightning, the emergence of "graduated wallets," eCash systems like Cashu and Fedimint, statechain-based systems like Spark, and the future of Bitcoin payments UX. The conversation ranges from practical LSP economics to the viability of Ark, Spark, and other L2 proposals, as well as Evan's views on privacy, trust models, griefing attacks, covenants, and how wallets should guide users up the self-custody ladder. Plus: merchant adoption, credit-card fee wars, and a closing reflection on how AI is reshaping modern engineering and Bitcoin development. Guest Evan Kaloudis – Founder of Zeus, the mobile Lightning wallet that began as a remote node controller in 2019 and has since evolved into a full Lightning stack with embedded LND, LSP functionality, swaps, eCash capabilities, and B2B onboarding tools.

    1 h 20 min

  7. 01/12/2025

    BRH-002: BitDevs Radio Hour #2 - Cluster Mempool Merged, Jack Mallers De-banked

    It's time for another BitDevs Radio Hour! Alex Lewin and Stephen DeLorme discuss some of the latest technical developments in Bitcoin. This conversation covers topics like the merging of Cluster Mempool into Bitcoin Core, preventing lightning pinning attacks with P2A and v3 transactions, the drama over Jack Maller's getting debanked by Chase, and other topics.

    53 min

  8. 24/11/2025

    BRH-001: BitDevs Radio Hour #1 - Bitcoin Kernel Project, Soft Fork Debate, BIPs Process Update

    The very first BitDevs Radio Hour! Alex Lewin and Stephen DeLorme discuss some of the latest technical developments in Bitcoin. This conversation covers topics like the Bitcoin Kernel Project, recent soft fork related debates and internet drama, and updates to the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal process with Murch's motion activate BIP3. Bonus: El Salvadaro smash buys the dip and Coinbase brings back ICOs.

    1 h 12 min
Elenco completo (41)

Descrizione

Recorded in Atlanta's freedom-tech hackerspace, the ATL BitLab podcast covers the world of freedom technology, including bitcoin, privacy tech, nostr, sovereign computing, and more. Some episodes are geared towards the absolute beginner and some go deep into the weeds with how the technology works. There's something here for everyone.

Informazioni

  • Creatore
    ATL BitLab
  • Anni di attività
    2025 - 2026
  • Puntate
    41
  • Classificazione
    Contenuti espliciti
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Sito web del podcast
    ATL BitLab Podcast