Broadcasting live from ATL BitLab on Friday, March 13th, 2026, Stephen DeLorme and Alex Lewin cover Matt Corallo’s 24-bit nonce space BIP moving to draft PR (fast-tracking good ideas), Dahlia’s cross-input signature aggregation accepted at Eurocrypt (holy grail cryptography), and BDK 3.0 release candidate after years of development (SQLite migration unlocking new features).

Protocol developments include Rusty Russell requesting BIP numbers for Great Script Restoration proposals (reactivating opcodes with var ops budget for safe execution), Cold Card’s proof of reserves feature via BIP 322 (cryptographic verification supporting Taproot), and Jonathan Harvey-Buiselle fixing Lightning gossip with mini-sketch (set reconciliation from Bitcoin mempool adapted for efficient peer sync).

Lightning updates: LND merges onion message forwarding after years of BOLT 12 debate (enabling native static offers), VTXO verification standard released (Arc Sovereign Audit tool visualizes sovereignty maps), and Arc Labs raises $5.2M led by Tether (programmable Bitcoin narrative sparks protocol fatigue discussion). The hosts debate standards adoption mechanics—Walmart forces partners vs grassroots—and observe Coinbase Base, Binance Smart Chain success through business leverage rather than open specs.

AI and Bitcoin development: AJ Towns experiments with Claude Code for PR review (quiz approach adds brain power vs sycophantic approval), highlights sycophancy problem in AI code review, and shares principles for effective AI-assisted development. Rob Hamilton’s viral tweet resurfaces 1979 IBM principle: “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.” Privacy tools emerge with Crest building on Citrea rollup (Ethereum Nocturne fork), and Bitcoin crosses 20 million coins mined milestone.

Topics Covered ⛏️ Matt Corallo: 24-Bit Nonce Space BIP

• BIP 320 has 16 bits, miners already using seven timestamp bits
• Draft PR already open from Antoine—moving incredibly fast
• Speedrun potential: good technical ideas move quickly in Bitcoin Core
• Stephen jokes about Bitcoin fork with zero nonce bits

🔐 Dahlia: Cross-Input Signature Aggregation

• Holy grail problem: aggregate signatures across multiple UTXOs being spent
• Reduces blockchain bloat for multi-input transactions
• Paper accepted at Eurocrypt—rare Bitcoin crypto recognition
• Blockstream and Ledger collaboration
• Alex: “The government hates Eurocrypt apparently”

📦 BDK 3.0 Release Candidate

• First RC after only two major releases since 2018
• SQLite migration adds new wallet database table (breaking change)
• Breaking changes unblock long-awaited features
• Used to be called Magical Bitcoin, supported by Spiral
• Thunderbiscuit’s React Native bindings architecture copied by Fedimint SDK

📜 Great Script Restoration – Rusty Russell Requests BIP Numbers

• Reactivating opcodes Satoshi disabled due to security concerns
• Var ops budget: assign computational cost to each opcode
• Currently transaction size proxies for verification cost
• New approach: calculate actual CPU cost per opcode
• Two BIPs ready for publication after three years of work
• Bitcoin++ Austin 2024: Rusty’s keynote converted everyone to this covenant approach

💳 Cold Card: Proof of Reserves via BIP 322

• Cryptographic proof you control funds without spending them
• Works with Taproot and Schnorr signatures (not just ECDSA)
• Stephen and Alex race Claude/Grok to verify Schnorr support—Claude wins
• Supported in Sparrow Wallet, firmware update pending
• BIP exists but not yet merged into Bitcoin Core
• Perfect for audits, transparency reports, flexing reserves

⚡ Lightning Gossip: Mini-Sketch Optimization

• Jonathan Harvey-Buiselle (JHB) hired by Chaincode to work full-time
• Problem: nodes request all data, receive 10x redundant messages
• Mini-sketch: set reconciliation algorithm from Bitcoin mempool
• Adapts same algorithm for Lightning network graph sync
• Dramatic speedups demonstrated in Delving Bitcoin post
• Reduces bandwidth burden especially for mobile nodes

💬 LND Adds Onion Message Forwarding

• Merged three days ago after years of BOLT 12 debate
• Enables BOLT 12 static offers (static Lightning addresses)
• 2022-2023 controversy: “free messaging server” concerns
• Core Lightning, LDK, Phoenix, Eclair already supported it
• Network health improvement: no longer requires non-LND peers for BOLT 12
• UX challenge: backwards compatibility with BOLT 11 wallets

🏦 VTXO Verification Standard (Arc)

• VTXO = virtual transaction output (unpublished UTXO in Arc systems)
• VPAC standard enables independent verification on hardware wallets
• Arc Sovereign Audit tool visualizes sovereignty maps
• Shows transaction chain needed to cash out to real UTXO
• Supports both Arc Labs and Second implementations
• Alex: “Arc is cool but needs covenants to be truly non-custodial”

💰 Arc Labs Raises $5.2M

• Seed round led by Tether, includes Ego Death Capital, Epic VC, others
• Programmable Bitcoin narrative sparks protocol fatigue discussion
• Alex: “Every week someone claims they’ll bring programmability to Bitcoin”
• Grok generates list of 12+ companies with same pitch (Stacks, Rootstock, etc.)
• Stephen’s dad’s observation: Real standards = Walmart forces partners, not grassroots
• Examples: Binance Smart Chain, Coinbase Base succeed through business leverage
• Arc’s Tapscript approach more interesting than bridge-to-EVM clones

🔒 Crest Privacy Tool on Citrea Rollup

• Built on Citrea (BitVM-based rollup with EVM compatibility)
• Fork of Ethereum’s Nocturne privacy protocol
• Just point to Citrea EVM, change branding, boom—company
• Privacy becoming marketable again in Bitcoin ecosystem
• Alex jokes: “Should fork every Ethereum protocol for Citrea with Claude 24/7”

🤖 AI Code Review: AJ Towns Experiments

• Inspired by podcast discussion of Instagibs using Claude Code
• Problem: Claude biases toward positivity, takes ideas for granted
• Sycophancy issue: tells you what you want to hear, not critical review
• Solution: Quiz approach—AI asks questions to test understanding
• Keep AI review private until human review done, then compare
• Goal: add brain power to process, not subtract it
• Created principles document for Claude (make changes simple, find root causes, etc.)
• Stephen: “Would a staff engineer approve this?” will become idiom like “two bit”

⚖️ Accountability and AI Decisions

• Rob Hamilton viral tweet: IBM 1979 principle resurfaces
• “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore must never make management decisions”
• Context: Claude Code wiped production database with Terraform command
• Accountability principle limits AI in decision-making roles
• Stephen: “Last thing we turn over to AIs will be management decisions”

🎰 Shitcoin Corner: Molt Token Drama

• Meta acquired Moltbook (AI social platform)
• Molt token (unaffiliated) pumped 5x, then crashed 60%
• Moltbook had collected fees from token via pump.fun-like platform
• Tweet: “Thankfully the fees from Molt are helping to keep the lights on”
• Users mistake tokens for equity
• Alex: “Back in my day you had to go to Vegas to gamble publicly”
• Now: hide financial instability from loved ones via Telegram tokens

📊 Bitcoin Milestone

• 20 millionth Bitcoin mined by Foundry Mining USA
• Article error: “one in 20 remains” should be “one in 21”
• Miners pivoting to AI as subsidy decreases

Links

• ⚡ Lightning & Protocol

  • 24-bit nVersion BIP – Matt Corallo proposal, Antoine draft PR

  • Dahlia Cross-Input Signature Aggregation – Eurocrypt acceptance (Blockstream/Ledger)

  • First release candidate for BDK v3.0.0 released

  Rusty Russell requests BIP numbers for two Great Script Restoration BIPs

  • Mailing list post

  • BIPs PRs

  • Two additional BIPs are WIP

  COLDCARD Proof-of-Reserves Support

  • Announcement

  • “Perfect for audits, transparency reports, or just flexing your reserves.”

  Lightning Network Gossip

  • https://github.com/jharveyb/gossip_observer

  LND adds Onion Message Forwarding

  • https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/10089

  A standard for stateless VTXO verification – Tool to audit VTXO exit paths Ark Labs Raises $5.2M with Tether

  • Announcement

  Crest – New Privacy Tool Announced built on Citrea

  • https://x.com/crest_btc

  • Closed Beta Announcement

  • Repo is a Fork of another protocol

  AI Updates Using AI tooling for code review

  • https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/using-ai-tooling-for-code-review/2277

  Misc

  • https://x.com/Rob1Ham/status/2029989251228839990

  💩The 20 Millionth Bitcoin Was Mined (Block 939,999)

  • https://www.cryptbull.net/2026/03/11/bitcoin-crosses-20-million-coins-mined-and-only-1-in-20-remains/

  Meta Rugs $MOLT

  • https://x.com/diegoxyz/status/2032465158644138133