Episode 72: Inscriptions

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

#Bitcoinbtcdevelopmenttechnicaltechnology #Tech #Van Wirdum Sjorsnado

39:30

In this episode of The Innovators & Investors Podcast, host Kristian Marquez sits down with David Brem, Managing Director of the University of Michigan’s Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund. David offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a student-led endowment fund focused on early-stage, sector-agnostic investments primarily in the Michigan ecosystem. He shares insights on their unique, founder-first investment approach, how they navigate pre-seed to Series A venture opportunities, and the rigorous due diligence process involving qualitative analysis over pure numbers. David also discusses his roles with global VC networks including Electro Ventures, the London Venture Capital Network, and Level Up Ventures, illustrating how he bridges U.S., European, and Australian venture ecosystems with a special focus on mobility and transportation tech. Highlights include deep dives into emerging trends like eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft), smart city infrastructure, and safety innovations in aviation technology. Listeners will gain valuable perspectives on how diverse expertise—from military intelligence and management consulting to academic ventures—shapes David’s investment thesis and community-building efforts. The episode also explores the importance of networking, adding value in the startup ecosystem, and practical advice for aspiring investors or entrepreneurs navigating the venture capital world. With stories of successes, challenges, and future outlooks, this episode is a must-listen for innovators, founders, and investors aiming to understand the intersection of academia, technology, and venture capital in today’s dynamic landscape. Learn more about David's work at https://zli.umich.edu/zell-lurie-commercialization-fund/ Connect with David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-lowell-brem/ Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/ Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work? Check out his website at https://finstratmgmt.com…

2 years ago 40:34

M4A•Episode home

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

98 episodes

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

Episode 72: Inscriptions

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

39 subscribers

published 2 years ago

M4A•Episode home

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

98 episodes

#Bitcoinbtcdevelopmenttechnicaltechnology #Tech #Van Wirdum Sjorsnado

All episodes

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 98: Return of the OP_RETURN 1:13:36

9 weeks ago1:13:36

1:13:36

Aaron and Sjors discuss the proposal to remove the OP_RETURN limit from Bitcoin Core. This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard. Aaron’s Nostr: ⁠npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: ⁠nprofile1qyvhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnnwpex7an0daehgtnwdshsqgyxsh477ejn8rwkjv0zen0ncxwe7rj6zpnujx8j9ecgrsj43786lqyul0f2…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 97: Bitcoin Core v29 47:27

11 weeks ago47:27

47:27

Aaron and Sjors talk about the new Bitcoin Core 29.0 release. .=== This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard. Aaron’s Nostr: ⁠npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: ⁠nprofile1qyvhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnnwpex7an0daehgtnwdshsqgyxsh477ejn8rwkjv0zen0ncxwe7rj6zpnujx8j9ecgrsj43786lqyul0f2…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 96: Mining Decentralization Update 47:10

22 weeks ago47:10

47:10

Stratum v2, DATUM, Bitaxe, P2Pool and friends. In Bitcoin, Explained 96, Aaron and Sjors discuss some recent innovations in mining, and in particular mining decentralization. Specifically, they discuss the Stratum V2 and DATUM mining protocols to decentralize transaction selection in mining pools, the open source hardware Bitaxe miner, and some recent proposals to make decentralized mining pools like P2Pool more viable. === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard. Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Nostr: nprofile1qyvhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnnwpex7an0daehgtnwdshsqgyxsh477ejn8rwkjv0zen0ncxwe7rj6zpnujx8j9ecgrsj43786lqyul0f2…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 95: Bitcoin Core v28.0 43:28

39 weeks ago43:28

43:28

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/ This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard. Aaron’s Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Nostr: nprofile1qyvhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnnwpex7an0daehgtnwdshsqgyxsh477ejn8rwkjv0zen0ncxwe7rj6zpnujx8j9ecgrsj43786lqyul0f2…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 94: Silent Payments part 2 1:00:43

1 year ago1:00:43

1:00:43

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”. === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard. Aaron's Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost Sjors’ Nostr: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c 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/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 93: The Great Consensus Cleanup Revival (And an Update on the Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet Arrests) 51:00

1 year ago51:00

51:00

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. === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite , maker of the ColdCard Aaron's Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost Sjors’ Nostr: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com. https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 92: Bitcoin Core 27.0 35:39

1 year ago35:39

35:39

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 === This episode’s sponsor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠CoinKite⁠⁠⁠⁠ , maker of the ColdCard Aaron's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@AaronvanW⁠⁠⁠⁠ Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@provoost⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com. ⁠https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 91: Splicing 42:45

1 year ago42:45

42:45

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. === 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: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com. https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 90: Asynchronous Lightning Payments 36:59

1 year ago36:59

36:59

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. === 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: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 89: B-money and RPOW 37:44

1 year ago37:44

37:44

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 === This episode’s sponsor: ⁠CoinKite⁠ , maker of the ColdCard Aaron's Twitter: ⁠@AaronvanW⁠ Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: ⁠@provoost⁠ Sjors’ Nostr: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com ⁠https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 88: Hashcash and Bit Gold 45:28

2 years ago45:28

45:28

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) === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite , maker of the ColdCard Aaron's Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost Sjors’ Nostr: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 87: The Block 1,983,702 Problem 39:14

2 years ago39:14

39:14

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss the so-called “block 1,983,702 problem”. They explain how a bug in early Bitcoin implementations could in rare cases cause a loss of funds, or in a worst-case scenario even lead to consensus failures, while they also explain how BIP 30 and BIP 34 solved this problem. As it turns out, however, BIP 34 introduced a new problem, that could become an issue about twenty years from now… === This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite , maker of the ColdCard Aaron's Twitter: @AaronvanW Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5 Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost Sjors’ Nostr: npub1s6z7hmmx2vud66f3utxd70qem8cwtggx0jgc7gh8pqwz2k8cltuqrdwk4c If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 86: Ocean Tides 36:20

2 years ago36:20

36:20

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors explain what features are offered by Ocean , the relaunched and rebranded Eligius mining pool. They discuss how payouts from this pool are (partially) non-custodial, how the block template creation is fully transparent, and how payout distribution is determined. Aaron and Sjors also briefly touch on the "spam" filtering employed by Ocean, and how that potentially affects profitability of the pool. Our new sponsor: https://coinkite.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 85: Bitcoin Core 26.0 (And F2Pool’s OFAC Compliant Mining Policy) 37:19

2 years ago37:19

37:19

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors explain what new features are included in the upcoming Bitcoin Core 0.26 release. They also briefly discuss recent developments concerning the transaction inclusion policy of mining pool F2Pool, which appears to have been compliant with the OFAC sanctions list. Link to testing guide: https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoin-devwiki/wiki/26.0-Release-Candidate-Testing-Guide…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 84: Marathon Pool’s Invalid Block (And Some Updates About the Show) 22:14

2 years ago22:14

22:14

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss an invalid block mined by Marathon Pool. They explain why the block was invalid, what caused it (and what didn’t), and why that didn’t affect the Bitcoin network. Aaron and Sjors also provide some updates about the show, and what that means moving forward. Finally, Sjors briefly mentions some notable Bitcoin Core updates that were recently merged. For more information on the invalid block, also see: https://b10c.me/observations/07-invalid-block-809478/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 83: The Milk Sad Vulnerability 46:48

2 years ago46:48

46:48

In this episode, Aaron (@AaronvanW) and Sjors (@provoost) discuss a vulnerability in Libbitcoin dubbed “Milk Sad”, which allowed people to generate private key seeds with such weak entropy that their private keys could be brute forced and their coins stolen. Aaron and Sjors examine how this vulnerability (could have) ended up in Libbitcoin as well as in Andreas Antonopoulos’ book Mastering Bitcoin , to what extent it should be considered a bug, and more. For more information on Milk Sad, see: https://milksad.info/ Libbitcoin lead developer Eric Voskuil on Milk Sad: https://youtu.be/3uwl5xDdc7c Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 THIS EPISODE’S SPONSORS: ⁠Voltage Cloud⁠ ⁠Bitcoin 2024 Nashville⁠ ⁠Bitcoin Magazine⁠ ⁠Bitcoin Amsterdam⁠ Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2024 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! - https://b.tc/conference/2024…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 82: Scaling to Billions of Users 30:29

2 years ago30:29

30:29

In this episode, Aaron (@AaronvanW) and Sjors (@provoost) discuss a recent blog post by Bitcoin Core developer Anthony Towns (@ajtowns), “Putting the B in BTC”, in which he outlines a vision for scaling Bitcoin to facilitate billions of users. As Aaron and Sjors walk through the article, they explain what some of Towns’ proposed solutions are, and which tradeoffs they entail. Link to the blog post: https://www.erisian.com.au/wordpress/2023/06/21/putting-the-b-in-btc Sjors New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Technical-innovations-Sjors-Provoost/dp/9090360425 THIS EPISODE’S SPONSORS: Voltage Cloud Bitcoin 2024 Nashville Bitcoin Magazine Bitcoin Amsterdam Lower your time preference and lock-in your BITCOIN 2024 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! - https://b.tc/conference/2024…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 81: Bitcoin Core 25.0 39:02

2 years ago39:02

39:02

In this episode, Aaron (@AaronvanW) and Sjors (@provoost) discuss Bitcoin Core 25.0, the latest major release of the Bitcoin Core software. They highlight four of the most notable changes: performance improvements concerning huge transaction loads, further Miniscript integration, a faster wallet re-scan, and the decreased 65-byte transaction limit policy rule. For further reading on the reasoning behind 65-byte policy rule, also see: https://bitslog.com/2018/06/09/leaf-node-weakness-in-bitcoin-merkle-tree-design/ 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 2024 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! - https://b.tc/conference/2024…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 80: Stratum V2 50:00

2 years ago50:00

50:00

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron (@AaronvanW) and Sjors (@provoost) are joined by Braiins co-founder Jan Čapek (@janbraiins), who has been leading the initiative to upgrade pooled mining to the Stratum V2 protocol. Aaron, Sjors and Jan discuss what pooled mining is, how the Stratum protocol helps with that, and in what ways Stratum V2 is an improvement over Stratum V1. 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 2024 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! - https://b.tc/conference/2024…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 79: The Witness Discount 49:31

2 years ago49:31

49:31

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron (@AaronvanW) and Sjors (@provoost) explain why the witness discount was included in the Segregated Witness protocol upgrade from 2017, why this discount is 75%, and why this discount still makes sense in today’s world where Inscriptions benefit from it. 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 2024 conference tickets today! Use the code BMLIVE for a 10% Discount! - https://b.tc/conference/2024…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 78: Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBTs) (And Dutch Auctions) 32:57

2 years ago32:57

32:57

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron (@AaronvanW) and Sjors (@provoost) explain Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBTs), discussing what problems they solve, how they work, and some of the ways they are used. In the last part of the episode, the hosts zoom in on one particular PSBT use case called Dutch Auctions, which Bitcoin Magazine recently used to sell ordinals. 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…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 77: Peer-to-peer Encryption 36:52

2 years ago36:52

36:52

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss BIP 324, the proposal by Dhruv, Pieter Wuille and Tim Ruffing to add peer-to-peer (P2P) encryption to the Bitcoin protocol. They explain why this is needed, how it would work, and which problems it would, and wouldn’t solve. 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…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 76: Stamps (And the Invalid Block Caused by It) 50:53

2 years ago50:53

50:53

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…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 75: Multisig (And Musig) 52:30

2 years ago52:30

52:30

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss multi-signature (multisig), and the various ways that Bitcoin enables multisig; from bare multisig, to P2SH, SegWit, Taproot, and finally Musig, as well as some potential future solutions. 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…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 74: Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) 43:24

2 years ago43:24

43:24

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!…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

1
Episode 73: OP_VAULT 40:42

2 years ago40:42

40:42

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…

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Episode 72: Inscriptions 40:34

2 years ago40:34

40:34

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…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 71: Timelocks 32:58

2 years ago32:58

32:58

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…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 70: The Bitcoin Core 24.0 Bug (Or Why There Is a Bitcoin Core 24.0.1 Release) 23:04

3 years ago23:04

23:04

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…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 69: The Tornado Cash Trial 39:30

3 years ago39:30

39:30

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/…

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Episode 68: Full Replace-By-Fee (RBF) in Bitcoin Core 24.0 42:52

3 years ago42:52

42:52

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/…

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Episode 67: Insights From the Fourth Largest Lightning Network Node 50:45

3 years ago50:45

50:45

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/…

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Episode 66: The BTCD Bug That Brought Down LND Nodes 33:34

3 years ago33:34

33:34

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss a recent bug in the btcd Bitcoin implementation that affected a large part of the Lightning network, as it disconnected lnd Lightning nodes from the Bitcoin blockchain. In the episode, Aaron and Sjors explain that a developer going by the name Burak on Twitter created a 998-of-999 multisig transaction by leveraging Taproot. Although this was a valid transaction, btcd and lnd nodes rejected it, and therefore rejected the block that included the transaction and all blocks that came after it. Specifically, Sjors explains, btcd rejected the transaction because it has a maximum limit on how much witness data a Segwit transaction can include. Although other Bitcoin implementations do enforce this limit on Segwit version 0 transactions, Segwit version 1 (that is, Taproot) transactions have no such limit. Still, it is a bit unclear why this bug in btcd seemingly also affected many lnd Lightning nodes which use Bitcoin Core rather than btcd to validate blocks. In the second half of the episode, Sjors speculates how the two may be connected. Finally, Aaron and Sjors explain how the Lightning Network is affected when Lightning nodes reject the Bitcoin blockchain. 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/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 65: Bitcoin Core 24.0 41:36

3 years ago41:36

41:36

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained , hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss the upcoming Bitcoin Core major release, Bitcoin Core 24.0. The Bitcoin Core project produces a new major release of its software roughly every six months. The 24th major release is currently in its release candidate phase, which means that it is being tested and could technically be released any day now (though this phase will probably last a few more weeks). In the episode, Aaron and Sjors discuss seven of the most notable changes included in Bitcoin Core 24.0. This includes a change to how nodes download blocks when they sync with the network. While previous Bitcoin Core versions already started by downloading only block headers to make sure that the blocks they download have sufficient proof of work on them, Bitcoin Core 24.0 nodes will initially not store these block headers in order to prevent a certain type of resource exhaustion attack. Aaron and Sjors explain that this should eventually also allow for the removal of any checkpoints in the Bitcoin Core codebase. They go on to explain that Bitcoin Core 24.0 also includes an added option for users to apply full replace-by-fee (RBF) logic. Where Bitcoin Core nodes so far would apply the “first seen” rule, which meant that conflicting transactions wouldn’t be accepted in the node's memory pool (mempool) and forwarded to peers, Bitcoin Core 24.0 users can choose to make their nodes accept and forward conflicting transactions if they include a higher fee than (the) earlier transaction(s) they conflict with. Further upgrades discussed by Aaron and Sjors include a tool to migrate legacy wallets to descriptor wallets, initial miniscript support, default use of RBF when creating transactions, an improved UTXO selection algorithm which randomizes change output amounts for extra privacy, and a new “send all” function to spend a particular (set of) UTXO(s) in full. 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/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 64: HD Wallets, Mnemonic Codes and SeedQR 29:25

3 years ago29:25

29:25

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) Wallets, mnemonic codes, and — especially — the new SeedQR format which allows users to store their mnemonic codes as QR codes. Aaron and Sjors start the episode by recapping what HD Wallets (also known as private key seeds) are, and why they are preferred over regular private key backups. Next, they briefly explain why mnemonic codes (also known as seed phrases) are a popular solution for encoding and storing private key seeds. The Bitcoin, Explained hosts then go on to discuss SeedQR. SeedQR is a new format that allows Bitcoin users to encode and store their mnemonic code as a QR code. This means that mnemonic codes can be stored in a computer-readable format; any compatible device (like a hardware wallet with a camera) should be able to scan the QR code, and import all associated private keys. This could be useful for backups. but it could also be used so that wallets (including hardware wallets, but also mobile or desktop wallets) no longer have to store private keys at all. The QR code could be scanned when the wallet is used to send a transaction, after which the private keys could be forgotten by the device altogether. (SeedSigner is an open source, do-it-yourself hardware wallet that does exactly this.) Finally, Sjors goes over some of the intricacies of formatting a seed phrase to fit in a compact QR code, and some of the efficiency gains SeedQR uses to accomplish this. 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/ #BitcoinExplained #BitcoinPrice #BitcoinCore #BitcoinMagazine #journalism #bitcoinnews…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 63: The Bitcoin Core Development Process 39:54

3 years ago39:54

39:54

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss the Bitcoin Core development process, and more specifically, the different roles that are involved in this process. At the start of the episode, Aaron and Sjors explain what Bitcoin Core is, both in a practical sense as well as in a more definitional sense, and they touch on some slightly different ideas about this as well. Aaron and Sjors then go on to explain the roles of three distinct types of Bitcoin Core contributors: “regular” Bitcoin Core contributors, Bitcoin Core maintainers, and the Bitcoin Core lead maintainer. Since there are no barriers to entry, anyone can become a Bitcoin Core contributor, Aaron and Sjors point out: anyone can start contributing to the Bitcoin Core project by offering code, review of code, or perhaps other types of contributions like text translations. Bitcoin Core maintainers, then, are Bitcoin Core contributors who can merge new code into the Bitcoin Core codebase. Aaron and Sjors explain what this means exactly, and how someone can become a Bitcoin maintainer. Finally, Aaron and Sjors go over some of the typical tasks of the Bitcoin Core lead maintainer, which includes managing the release process, adding and removing (other) Bitcoin Core maintainers to the project, and updating the bitcoincore.org website. They also discuss which of these tasks are in fact still done by the Bitcoin Core lead maintainer, however, and which tasks have over the years become more distributed. 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/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 62: Hash Functions 35:47

3 years ago35:47

35:47

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost go back to basics. They explain one of the most fundamental building blocks in all of Bitcoin: hash functions. To start the episode off, Aaron and Sjors explain that hash functions are a type of mathematical one-way functions. That means that they can easily convert one piece of data into another piece of data, a hash, but anyone who knows only this hash can not convert it back to the original data. Additionally, a hash is supposed to be unique: no two (different) pieces of data should result in the same hash. If either of these things is no longer true, a hash function is considered to be broken. Then, Aaron and Sjors go on to explain in a little bit more detail how hash functions actually work. They discuss some aspects of the history and evolution of different hash functions, they mention some hash functions that have indeed been broken over time, and they pinpoint which hash functions are used in Bitcoin. Finally, Aaron and Sjors explain how hash functions are used in Bitcoin, exactly. This includes almost every aspect of the Bitcoin system, they point out, ranging from transactions (in multiple ways) and blocks, to addresses and the proof of work mechanism, as well as in relatively new upgrades like Taproot, and hash functions are even used to create some randomness needed to establish connections on the peer-to-peer network.…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 61: OP_RETURN (And the ‘OP_RETURN Wars’) 26:17

3 years ago26:17

26:17

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss OP_RETURN and what some have called the “OP_RETURN wars”. More specifically, they discuss a blog post by BitMEX research titled: “The OP_Return Wars of 2014 – Dapps Vs Bitcoin Transactions”. Aaron and Sjors start off by explaining that OP_RETURN is an op code (a piece of code for Bitcoin transactions) that will render invalid any transaction that includes it in an input. This means that outputs that include OP_RETURN are unspendeable, which in turn means that Bitcoin nodes can safely remove such UTXOs from their UTXO set, which safes on storage. Early in Bitcoin’s years, people started using Bitcoin for more than just transactions. As one example given by Sjors, someone uploaded the entire Bitcoin white paper onto the blockchain. The BitMEX blog meanwhile explains that Layer Two protocols like Counterparty were rolling out decentralized applications on the blockchain. This type of non-transaction data was initially embedded in multisig transactions, but this meant that all Bitcoin nodes had to download, process and store this data forever, which comes at a cost. To mitigate this problem, Aaron and Sjors explain, Bitcoin developers in 2014 agreed to let nodes process and forward transactions with OP_RETURN outputs. These transactions would be better for uploading data, since their outputs can be removed form the UTXO set. The “OP_RETURN wars” refer to a debate between Bitcoin developers and (most notably) Counterparty developers over the maximum size of such transactions. Sjors explains why the maximum of 40 bytes was initially choses, why this was later increased to 80 bytes, and how these considerations have changed over time. BitMEX’ blog post: https://blog.bitmex.com/dapps-or-only-bitcoin-transactions-the-2014-debate/ Sjors’ book mentioned in the episode: https://www.btcwip.com/ Evan Kaloudis tells P & Q what hyperbitcoinization means to him. 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/ #bitcoin #bitcoinmagazine #hyperbitcoinization #money #whatismoney #whatisbitcoin #crypto #cryptocurrencies #globalmarkets…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 60: Reusing Addresses (and the Hertzbleed Attack) 33:10

3 years ago33:10

33:10

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained , hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss reusing Bitcoin addresses. More specifically, they explain why reusing Bitcoin addresses is a bad idea. Reusing Bitcoin addresses is a bad idea for roughly three reasons. The first two of these are that it harms privacy and impedes on the censorship resistance of Bitcoin. In the episode, Aaron and Sjors go over a couple examples of how such a loss of privacy and censorship resistance can negatively affect Bitcoin users. The third reason that reusing Bitcoin addresses is a bad idea, is that it opens up the possibility of some niche attacks. In certain cases, attackers could extract private keys from signatures after coins are first spent from an address — though this does require that a wallet implemented the signing algorithm wrongly in the first place. There are also some scenarios where quantum computers could in the future extract private keys from signatures if addresses are reused. Another type of niche attack is a timing sidechannel attack, such as the recently disclosed Hertzbleed Attack. Sjors explains that attackers can potentially derive a private key from a wallet by closely monitoring how the computer that hosts the wallet behaves when signing a transaction. This attack is more plausible if addresses are reused. Address reuse wiki: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse#Security Hertzbleed attack: https://www.hertzbleed.com/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 59: Hard Forks (And Whether Bitcoin Has Ever Hard Forked) 40:55

3 years ago40:55

40:55

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss a recent blog post by James Lopp titled, “Has Bitcoin Ever Hard Forked”? Hard forks are generally defined as Bitcoin protocol upgrades that remove or loosen rules, making these types of upgrades backwards-incompatible. Aaron and Sjors explain, however, that Lopp in his blog post argues that this definition isn’t very precise and suggests the term should only apply if the rule change was actually utilized. In addition, hard forks can be categorized into explicit hard forks, where the rule change was an intentional hard fork, and implicit hard forks, where the rule change wasn’t originally intended to be a hard fork at all but turned out to be one anyways. In the second half of the podcast, Aaron and Sjors break down the seven hard forks in Bitcoin’s history that Lopp was able to find, of which five were never utilized (and should therefore arguably not be considered hard forks at all), one was explicit, and one was implicit. Finally, Aaron and Sjors briefly discuss (a) future hard fork(s) that need(s) to happen, and what kind of philosophy around deploying hard forks might make sense for Bitcoin. Jameson Lopp’s blog post: https://blog.lopp.net/has-bitcoin-ever-hard-forked/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 58: Silent Payments 46:16

3 years ago46:16

46:16

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained , hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost welcome Ruben Somsen back on the show to talk about a recent proposal of his called “Silent Payments”. Silent Payments resemble earlier ideas like Stealth Addresses and Reusable Payment Codes, in that they allow users to publish a static “address”, while this is not the actual Bitcoin address they will be paid on. Instead, senders of a transaction can use this static address to generate new Bitcoin addresses for the recipient, for which the recipient — and only the recipient — can in turn generate the corresponding private keys. Like Stealth Addresses and Reusable Payment Codes, the benefit of Silent Payments is that addresses can be posted publicly without harming users’ privacy; snoops cannot link the publicly posted address to the actual Bitcoin addresses that the recipient is paid on. Meanwhile, unlike Stealth Addresses and Reusable Payment Codes, Silent Payments do not require any additional blockchain data— though this does come at a computational cost for the recipient. The podcast episode details all this in roughly two parts. In the first half of the episode, Ruben, Aaron and Sjors break down how Silent Payments work, and in the second half of the episode they discuss how Silent Payments compare to Stealth Addresses and Reusable Payment Codes, as well as some potential implementation issues.…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 57: User Rejected Soft Forks (URSFs) 43:42

3 years ago43:42

43:42

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained , hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss URSFs, which stands for either User Rejected Soft Forks or User Resisted Soft Forks, depending on who you ask. URSFs are a recently introduced tool in Bitcoin’s upgrade mechanism toolkit. In the first part of the episode, Aaron and Sjors explain that URSFs are best considered the mirror equivalent of UASFs (User Activated Soft Forks) with mandated signaling. Where UASFs will towards the end of a soft fork activation window reject blocks that don’t signal readiness for a soft fork, URSFs will reject blocks that do signal. If both UASF and URSF clients are deployed, they would in principle create a split in the blockchain. In the second part of the episode, the duo outlines the various soft fork upgrade mechanisms, ranging from MASFs (Miner Activated Soft Forks), flag day activated UASFs and mandated signaling UASFs. Aaron then explains why he believes mandated signaling UASFs are his preferred method of deploying soft forks, and why he thinks URSFs should in the future be offered as an added option for users who prefer to reject the soft fork. Finally, Sjors lays out the “rough consensus” guidelines as used in context of the Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF), and how this applies to Bitcoin upgrades.…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 56: Bitcoin Core 23.0 34:53

3 years ago34:53

34:53

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained , hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss Bitcoin Core 23.0, the upcoming major release of Bitcoin's de facto reference implementation. The duo highlights some of the most notable changes in this new software client, and they offer a bit of extra context about the release as well. At the time of recording this episode, Bitcoin Core 23.0 was still going through the release candidate phase, where the software is tested for bugs; Aaron and Sjors start by explaining how this process works, exactly. Then, throughout the episode, Aaron and Sjors highlight seven changes that are included in this new Bitcoin Core release: 1) the removal of the preference to connect with peers through port 8333, 2) the added support for CJDNS, 3) the inclusion of replace-by-fee transactions in the transaction fee estimation algorithm, 4) the inclusion of statically defined tracepoints, 5) a new tool to spot typos in bech32 addresses, 6) the addition of support for Taproot in the wallet, and 7) the new option to freeze certain UTXOs until some time in the future. Finally, Aaron and Sjors discuss how a bug in a software compiler had initially resulted in a bug in an earlier version of this Bitcoin Core release for Windows, giving an interesting insight in the complications with upstream dependencies.…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 55: Syncing Old Nodes 37:06

3 years ago37:06

37:06

In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained , hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss research done by CasaHODL co-founder and CTO Jameson Lopp as well as Sjors himself on syncing old Bitcoin nodes. Whenever a new Bitcoin node comes online, it must first sync with the rest of the Bitcoin network: it needs to download and verify the entire blockchain up until the most recent block in order to be up to date on the state of bitcoin ownership. This can take quite a while, however, and should take longer over time as the blockchain keeps growing. To offset this, and to improve user experience more generally, Bitcoin Core developers seek to improve performance of the Bitcoin Core code so that newer releases sync faster than their predecessors. In the episode, Aaron and Sjors outline the performance improvements of Bitcoin Core clients over time, as analyzed most recently in two blog posts by Lopp. They first explain why some very old Bitcoin clients have trouble syncing to the current state of the blockchain at all, pointing out some bugs in this early software, as well as issues relating to dependencies and the challenge of using such old clients today. Sjors then goes on to sum up some of the most important performance improvements that have been included in new Bitcoin Core releases over time. Jameson Lopp’s blog posts: https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-core-performance-evolution/ https://blog.lopp.net/running-bitcoin-core-v0-7-and-earlier/…

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

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Episode 54: Burying Soft Forks 37:05

3 years ago37:05