Bitcoin, Explained — The Technical Side of Bitcoin

Aaron and Sjors discuss Bitcoin Core 32.1 and its updated security disclosure policy in this live conference recording, followed by audience questions.

Links

Bitcoin Core 32.1 release announcement and release notes

Bitcoin Core security disclosure policy

Pull requests and discussion

Tor proof-of-work defenses: #33414

CJDNS support: discussion #36041 and release-note update #36202

Replacing libevent with a custom HTTP server: #35182

More inbound block-relay capacity: #28463

Fetching block inputs in parallel: #35295

Removing the experimental warning from send and sendall: #35601

Watch-only wallet exports: RPC #32489 and GUI #872

Undo-file overflow: advisory and fix #36669

TCP urgent-data memory exhaustion: advisory and fix #36665

The briefly mentioned paused-peer memory issue: advisory and fix #36667

Chapters

00:00:00 Live introduction

00:05:00 Tor proof-of-work defenses and CJDNS

00:12:06 Removing libevent: dependencies and the RPC server

00:15:40 More inbound block-relay connections

00:19:16 Faster validation with parallel input fetching

00:25:16 Wallet RPCs and watch-only exports

00:28:59 AI and the security disclosure policy

00:34:19 Undo-file overflow and chain reorganizations

00:41:15 TCP urgent data and memory exhaustion

00:48:11 Audience Q&A: watch-only wallets and descriptors

Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5

Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3

If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com.

https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/

Aaron and Sjors discuss the COLDCARD hack: the bug itself, how it could have happened, and some reflections on having had Coinkite as a sponsor.

Note: If you’re using a COLDCARD and still haven’t moved your funds to a secure location, do this as soon as possible. (Also listen to the previous emergency broadcast.)

Further reading:

https://wizardsardine.com/blog/coldcard-rng-vulnerability/

https://engineering.block.xyz/blog/predictable-rng-fallback-and-32-bit-reseed-in-coldcard-firmware

Chapters

00:00:00 The Hack and Weak Seeds

00:05:33 Simulator Code and Weak Randomness

00:19:15 Why MK4 Was Vulnerable

00:25:56 Open Source and Security Audits

00:35:34 Preventing the Next Failure

00:38:47 Multisig and Custody Tradeoffs

00:44:11 Could Victims Recover Funds?

00:48:50 Our Sponsorship Responsibilities

Aaron’s Nostr: npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5⁠

Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3

If you’d like to sponsor the show, please email info at bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com.

https://bitcoinexplainedpodcast.com/

The COLDCARD hardware wallet has a critical vulnerability. If you are using the COLDCARD to store bitcoin, move them to a secure location as soon as you can.

More information:

https://blog.coinkite.com/coldcard-mk3-seed-generation-warning/

https://blog.coinkite.com/entropy-technical-backgrounder/

Aaron and Sjors discuss what’s new in Bitcoin Core 31.

Chapters

00:00:00 Episode 100 and Core 31

00:02:41 Cluster Mempool

00:10:45 Package Relay and Fee Selection

00:18:59 Private Broadcast over Tor

00:24:03 ASMAP and Eclipse Attacks

00:31:45 The Private Broadcast Bug

00:33:44 Mining IPC and Stratum V2

This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the COLDCARD.

Aaron’s Nostr: ⁠npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5⁠

Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3

Aaron and Sjors discuss what’s new in Bitcoin Core 30.

Chapters

00:00:00 Release Overview and Controversy

00:04:58 OP_RETURN Policy Changes

00:12:32 Lower Minimum Relay Fees

00:23:06 Sigops Limits and Consensus Cleanup

00:31:42 Package Relay and Orphanage

00:37:04 The New bitcoin Command

00:38:48 Mining IPC and Stratum V2

00:44:55 Automatic Port Forwarding

This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the COLDCARD.

Aaron’s Nostr: ⁠npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5⁠

Sjors’ Nostr: npub1v25jqj332n630klwtqeqxgyrjl4alw4phmluhu2x6lcxzwy9m03suqexw3