Hi Insiders. This is Tuma, open-source reporter from the Insider Edition.
In this week update we feature PR2049 in CDK, which aims to integrate Payjoin in the Cashu implementation.
We also cover Century Metadata, the new venture by former Core-lightning developer Rusty Russell, which promises long term reliable storage and retrieval for small amounts of private data.
We finally present other news from the ecosystem. Notably, Bitcoin++ held its first-ever African conference, LDK banned by GitHub, and a guest book review on the Insider Edtion.
Highlights from the bitcoin developer ecosystem
I spent 10+ hours in open-source developer calls in the Bitcoin ecosystem last week. Here is what caught my eye:
PR2049 in CDK is adding support for Payjoin in the Cashu implementation.
During the weekly call, on Wednesday 17th, CDK contributors discussed PR2049, which aims to integrate Payjoin in the Cashu implementation. As of today, the PR is still in draft.
Payjoin is a technique that allows two users to gain more privacy in an on-chain transaction. The receiver provides one of his own UTXOs as an input, breaking the common-input heuristic that chain-analysis companies use.
Developers are working in parallel to draft a specific NUT for Payjoin. This PR builds on top of the recent integration of on-chain minting and melting in the Cashu protocol (NUT-30), and on BIP77, the proposal for the asynchronous version of Payjoin.
Century Metadata is a new project by former Core-lightning developer Rusty Russell.
On Monday 15th, Century Metadata founder and former Core-lightning lead developer Rusty Russell presented his new venture during the first ever weekly call.
The project promises long term reliable storage and retrieval for small amounts of private data. According to Rusty, this would be very useful for storing those auxiliary data needed to retrieve Bitcoin wallets, such as descriptors.
Rusty will hold weekly calls to provide updates on the project. If you want to know more about Century Metadata, watch Rusty’s presentation at Bitcoin++ Economics Edition, where he presented both the general idea behind his venture and the possible tech stack to achieve its goal.
A BIPs Update
There was no newsworthy update in the last days in the BIP repository. We’ll provide new updates as soon as a new BIP gets published or gets assigned a number.
Other News from the Bitcoin World
Talking about open-source: Last week, Bitcoin++ hosted its first ever African event in Nairobi, with a focus on what it means to work in public as open-source contributors, and how their work impacts several projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The conference streaming will be available on Thursday 25th.
Banned: LDK contributor Matt Corallo revealed that the Lightning implementation repository had been banned by GitHub with no apparent reason. In particular, LDK developers are no more allowed to run CI, neither a self-hosted instance, on their project, effectively forcing to look for other alternatives.
A Lodging of Wayfaring Men: Cypherpunk writer Max Hillebrand reviewed for the Insider a book that any modern Cypherpunk should read, A Lodging of Wayfaring Men by Paul Rosenberg. Max describes how this book laid the foundation for what Bitcoin and the whole open-source movement represents today.
Last Week in Bitcoin goes on Holiday: Your favorite open-source reporter is going on holiday for a couple of weeks! I will be back with the latest news from the Bitcoin developer ecosystem soon, but in the meantime be sure to follow our X account to stay always up-to-date!
Looking for an opportunity to join up with some bitcoin devs in person? Join us in Toronto this July 22- 24 to talk about finding consensus in Bitcoin!