Caught up in the storm of price action and US politics, it’s easy to forget that the Bitcoin tech landscape had its own breakout earlier this year. Now that things have cooled down over the summer, next week’s Open Source Stage is set to take place Bitcoin Nashville is a good opportunity to evaluate progress in the sector.
If you look at this agendaThis year’s packed lineup should send a message amid the election chatter. To get us all amped up for what promises to be an absolute marathon of an event, I’ve picked out a handful of topics and conversations to keep an eye on.
Technical innovation
Bitcoin developers will look to build on the momentum generated by “Bitcoin Season 2” in Nashville, as the focus remains on efforts to unlock Bitcoin’s programmability.
I previously discussed the arms race over all things BitVM and other alleged layer 2s. The level of excitement surrounding Bitcoin Script has never been higher. Advancements made possible by previous soft forks like Taproot and SegWit have led to various experiments, most of which are motivated by the Ordinals craze. Naturally, the conversation has begun to revolve around what comes next.
Unlock Expressiveness with OP_CAT
Friday July 26th. 09:30 am
Base58 founder and everyone’s favorite Bitcoin educator Niftynei (Lisa) will set the tone Friday morning by chairing a panel on the popular soft fork proposal OP_CAT. The hype surrounding the script improvement proposal has not abated, and Bitcoin developers have become increasingly vocal about their affinity for CAT and its superpowers.
I expect panelists Andrew Poelstra, Director of Research at Blockstream, and co-developers Rijndel and Brandon Black to make a strong case for the multifaceted script improvement.
BitVM: Stimulating innovation without a soft fork
Friday July 26th 10:00 am
It’s hard to overstate the sheer brainpower that went into this talk. There’s a reason BitVM has been the talk of the town since developer Robin Linus brought it to the stage last year. The proposal has attracted an impressive crowd of builders and thinkers intrigued by the prospect of making Bitcoin tamper-proof.
Without a working implementation, it also feels like crunch time for many of the promoters who have been talking big about its potential. The star-studded group of developers should be able to keep us updated on its progress and perhaps cut through the hype a little.
Privacy at stake
Bitcoin’s Legal Battle for Privacy: Free Samourai
Friday July 26th. 2:00 PM
The to arrest by developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill in April sent shockwaves through the Bitcoin industry. They were fixtures in the community for nearly a decade and were both staunch advocates for Bitcoin users’ privacy rights. Now that the dust has settled, questions remain about the case’s implications for open-source developers worldwide.
Veteran attorney Tor Ekeland, who represented Roman Sterlingov in the high-profile mixer case ‘Bitcoin Fog’, will be joined by other panelists to discuss the ‘prosecutions of cryptocurrency abuse and the blockchain surveillance state.“
Making Bitcoin Private with CISA
Friday July 26th 1:30pm
This one is a little less known, but will probably get some attention from those with a technical background. Cross-input signature aggregationor CISA, is a proposal that has been circulating in Bitcoin circles for years and was once proposed as part of the Taproot upgrade.
The general idea is to allow transactions to combine signatures from multiple inputs into one, effectively reducing their total weight and thus cost. The proposal resurfaced in the public debate a few months ago in the context of debates over much-needed privacy improvements to the Bitcoin protocol. Some have suggested that reducing the cost of collaborative, multi-input, transactions such as coin could be an incentive for further use of privacy tools.
Originally led by Blockstream researchwas developer Fabian Jahr recently awarded a subsidy from the Human Rights Foundation to explore the topic further. He is joined on stage by respected wallet developers Craig Raw of Sparrow Wallet and Jameson Lopp of Casa.
Bitcoin Development
The Status of Bitcoin Core Development
Saturday July 27th 11:00 am
Bitcoin’s reference software implementation is the silent giant of the industry. Its diverse and diligent team of developers has historically preferred to stay out of the spotlight. Now that the tech space is heating up and the stakes are higher than ever, how are contributors handling the increased attention?
Bitcoin Magazine’s Own Aaron Van Wirdum will attempt to clarify the internal workings of this close-knit group and contributors such as Ava Chow And Murch to share their thoughts about the project.
Bitcoin-free banking
Ecash debate: what are the trade-offs?
Saturday July 27th 3:15 pm
I couldn’t end this article without promoting at least one of the panels I’ll be involved in. Is it a replacement for centralized custodians? Is it a scaling solution? No one seems to agree on the role of ecash in the Bitcoin ecosystem, but it can’t be ignored any longer.
The rapid progress of projects such as It covers and the Cashew open-source implementation has received a significant amount of attention in the past year. Proponents celebrate its versatility and privacy gains, while detractors argue that it is no different than the banking system that Bitcoin was built to make obsolete.
Both parties will be represented on the panel, which promises to be an exciting conversation about the future of Bitcoin’s financial system.
There’s a lot of excitement about the prospect of Bitcoin entering the big leagues, but it’s hard to say whether the ecosystem is ready to accommodate this new influx of interest. As we bridge the political divide, it’s crucial to continue to support the open-source culture that got us here. Fortunately, the industry has never seemed more ready to take on this challenge. The diversity of initiatives on display at the conference is a testament to the maturing technical environment made possible by FOSS developers.