Last Week in Bitcoin (June 30 - July 6)
Highlights from the bitcoin developer ecosystem
Hi Insiders. This is Tuma, open source reporter from the Insider Edition. I spent 10+ hours in open developer calls in the bitcoin open source ecosystem this week. Here is what caught my eye:
White Noise is releasing imminently. White Noise is a nostr-based messaging app built on a new ratchet message security protocol called MLS or Message Layer Security. It will allow any Nostr user to message and create groups with high security and privacy.
Jeff and Max announced during the monthly MLS call that is a matter of days for the first official release to come out.
White Noise is the first nostr client for the MLS protocol, which allows messaging without any metadata leak.
What’s cool about the tech: DMs on Nostr has always been one the least functioning part of the protocol. The integration of MLS is a huge step forward on security and privacy, especially for groups that want private chats.
The White Noise Manifesto has just been published! Check it out on X, Instagram and Nostr.
BitCredit is a new protocol that aims at making Bitcoin more suited for the real economy by introducing the concept of Credit Money.
During their presentation on X Space, Hubertus and Mykyta Tymko explained their ideas for bootstrapping Bitcoin as a real Medium of Exchange, based on the Austrian School of Economics.
This protocol would allow Alice to sign a Bill of Credit to Bob in exchange for some goods. Bob could use the same BoE as a payment to Carl and so on and on. Alice will have to pay back the latest owner of the BoE.
What’s cool about the tech: no funds are in control of any third party at any moment in time, exchanges are purely peer-to-peer and no on/off ramps are ever needed from/to the traditional financial system.
Call to Action: BitCredit is looking for devs to work on the open-source code! If you are an expert in Rust or TypeScript, check them out on GitHub.
Electrum is distributing Submarine Swaps. In the latest version of Electrum Wallet, 4.6.0 (still in Beta — check release notes), a new plugin was released, which allows users to become Swaps Providers. This will allow anyone running Electrum to facilitate lightning to on-chain bitcoin swaps.
Electrum’s addition of a submarine swap protocol follows the confirmation from Boltz, a widely-used centralized swap service, that they are blacklisting OFAC listed addresses.
Electrum is finalizing a solution to allow anyone to become a provider for submarine swaps. Want to run a swap service yourself? All you need is the latest version of Electrum running the swapserver daemon, an always-on computer and enough bitcoin liquidity on-chain and on lightning.
What’s cool about the tech: Other than working actively to distibute the swap service, Electrum is also leveraging the Nostr protocol to allow announcing and discovery of different services providers, avoiding reliance on a single server.
StratumV2 launches a new website; new release expected this week.
The open source mining protocol has new website. Brings a better explanation of benefits of StratumV2 and is available in English, Russian, and Chinese.
Devs set the date for the 1.4.0 release to July 9th. Notably, some of the first adopters of the SV2 protocol are submitting feature requests to be included in the 1.5.0 milestone, which devs will start working on after the 1.4.0 release this week. New releases can be found on their Github.
What’s cool about the tech: Mining centralization is one of the highest risk for the future of Bitcoin. StratumV2 is a new protocol for miners and mining pools that helps schedule work, while also enabling miners more autonomy in block template selection.
Looking for an opportunity to join up with some bitcoin devs in person? Join us in Riga this August 7+8 to talk about privacy in bitcoin.Big thanks to NYDIG and HRF's Bitcoin Developer Fund, our Satoshi level sponsors for btc++ events in 2025.