Shao H. Wang

An upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol is generating yet another controversy that threatens to split the chain. This time, the issue is BIP-119, a proposal to add the OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY opcode via a softfork. While the proposed change is generally uncontroversial, the consensus mechanism for accepting the change has catalyzed

In a historical first for the Lightning network, Synonym, a Bitcoin-powered service provider, demonstrated the first Tether (USDT) transaction in a Lightning channel. This was the first time a mainnet stablecoin was bridged to Lightning. The transaction was performed using Omni, a platform for creating custom digital assets on the

Nothing gets Elon Musk riled up like criticism of his soft weak hands. Amidst rumors that Tesla had further reduced its exposure to Bitcoin, Musk took to Twitter to deny selling at the peak. He reiterated a positive stance on the cryptocurrency, stating that Tesla would resume acceptance of bitcoin

A new Taproot signaling period has begun, and activation looks likely. Although it is only one day into the two-week signaling period, 97.92% of mined blocks have signaled readiness for Taproot deployment. The activation process follows the rules specified in Speedy Trial, which requires that 90% of blocks mined

Elon Musk and Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor have come under fire after announcing the formation of a Bitcoin Mining Council to promote sustainability initiatives. The Bitcoin Mining Council is the result of a meeting between North American Bitcoin miners who have committed to publishing the details of their renewable energy

A persistent problem in cryptography is that of insufficiently random numbers.  Not-random-enough might sound like a contradiction in terms, but the issue has led to known attacks and real losses. On Thursday, the Blockstream research team introduced MuSig-DN, a proposal to overcome the vulnerabilities introduced by bad random number generators