Blockstreamer Randy Naar, in a new article, compares the covenant opcodes currently in production on the Liquid Network with the leading covenant proposals for Bitcoin, including APO, CTV, VAULT, and others. He also covers:

💡 Simplifying covenant construction with introspection opcodes.

🔐 How Liquid's CSFS and CAT opcodes can achieve similar functionality to CTV and VAULT.

🏗 How developers are building options contracts, confidential asset-based loans, Bitcoin stablecoins like FUSD, and more with covenant opcodes on Liquid.

🧠 The role next-gen blockchain language Simplicity could play in bringing covenant-like functionality to Bitcoin without the need for multiple smaller soft forks.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/before-they-were-cool-covenants-in-production-on-liquid

You can now trustlessly place limit and market orders directly from the Blockstream Jade hardware wallet, allowing for offline swaps via cold storage.

Head over to the non-custodial swap platform https://sideswap.io and exchange Liquid Bitcoin and other Liquid assets like USD and EUR stablecoins confidentially, directly from your Jade.

More info in the official announcement from SideSwap: https://sideswap.io/news/sideswap-jade-integration/

As interest in Bitcoin surges, there is more focus on creating layer-2 solutions to enhance its usability. At Blockstream, we count ourselves among those committed to building next-generation financial infrastructure based on Bitcoin’s strong foundation. As these solutions continue to evolve and mature, we can expect Bitcoin to serve an increasingly broad range of market needs. The latest from the team:

https://blog.blockstream.com/bitcoins-layered-design-the-key-to-greater-utility/

With a long history of the Liquid Network as an early adopter of ideas that have been later ported to Bitcoin, including SegWit, Schnorr signatures, OP_CSV, and others—the next time someone suggests a new covenant or L2 protocol, it's worth asking: why not try it on Liquid first?

Read more about the covenant opcodes already in production on Liquid, many of which either overlap with—or are leading—proposals for Bitcoin:

https://blog.blockstream.com/covenants-in-production-on-liquid/

The latest CLN release v23.11, codenamed "Bitcoin Orangepaper," is now live with new features and improvements:

⚡️Dual funding cross-compatibility with Eclair
⚡️New, more powerful RPC commands: check, restore, decode
⚡️Greater flexibility and simplicity for developers

Read the full write-up:

https://blog.blockstream.com/core-lightning-v23-11-bitcoin-orangepaper/

We’ve just dropped Blockstream Talk episode #33 featuring Core Lightning Lead Rusty Russell and host Jesse Knutson chatting all things Lightning. Jesse shares a perspective on Lightning adoption after a recent trip to El Salvador, and Rusty gives updates on the latest innovations at the Lightning spec level, explaining splicing, dual funding, and the latest CLN release v23.11 ⬇️

🎧 Listen: https://tinyurl.com/blockstreamtalk33
📺 Watch: https://youtu.be/fa5Cxvr3d2g

Blockstream Green has released Android v4.0.20 and iOS v4.0.19 with a host of updates and improvements for both platforms, some highlights:

📷  Jade watch-only import by scanning BCUR animated QR codes
⚡️ Lightning support with Jade air-gapped BIP85 mnemonic (Android)
☎️ New 2FA call method as an SMS backup (Android)
⛈ Update Breez SDK to 0.2.7 (iOS)

Download the latest version of Green today and stay at the forefront of the integration of second-layers on Bitcoin like Lightning and Liquid.

https://blockstream.com/green/

We’ve just released Blockstream Talk episode #34 where Jesse Knutson welcomes Core Lightning developer and the lead engineer behind Greenlight Christian Decker.

Christian runs through a history of the open-source CLN project and explains how it fits into Greenlight, Blockstream’s non-custodial solution to lower the Lightning Network entry barrier for developers and businesses.

📺 Watch: https://youtu.be/GWcFncLQPwU
🎧 Listen: https://tinyurl.com/blockstreamtalk34

Introducing Elements Academy, a new video tutorial series to help you learn Liquid and the open-source Elements platform it's built on. You'll learn how to:

🌊 Set up and run a Liquid node
💡 Peg-in, blind or unblind transactions, and issue assets on your node
🦄 Use the elements-cli for custom features
⛓ Create your own Bitcoin sidechain

You can access Elements Academy today via:

Build On L2: https://community.liquid.net/c/elements-academy/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkQfnwYLyI0&list=PLbgdHszjwqsZ7gtielvu3H7iSMViE7xKl&index=1

After a successful $5M raise in the first Blockstream ASIC (BASIC) Note series and the swift acquisition of new Antminer S19k Pro ASIC miners, we are excited to announce the launch of a second series, which will be made available on STOKR in the upcoming weeks.

The latest series offers investors another attractive entry point into the undervalued Bitcoin ASIC miner market, with the BTC to ASIC price ratio remaining similar to that of Series 1.

https://blog.blockstream.com/basic-note-series-1-closes-successfully-series-2-debuts-on-stokr/

We’ve just released Blockstream Talk #35 where host Jesse Knutson welcomes Lightning Protocol Engineer Lisa Neigut, aka Niftynei. As a longtime Core Lightning contributor and the Co-Founder of base58, a software engineering school built on a Bitcoin standard, Lisa shares a wealth of knowledge on open-source development and how to get involved.

📺 Watch: https://youtu.be/ht_2yP6MYG0
🎧 Listen: http://tinyurl.com/blockstreamtalk35

The latest release of Elements, the open-source sidechain software that Liquid is built on, is now live! This release brings the Elements codebase up to speed with Bitcoin Core 23.2, while adding new support for Apple silicon and fixing multiple important bugs.

https://blog.blockstream.com/elements-23-2-1-reaching-parity-with-bitcoin-core-23-2/

On Bitcoin’s 15th birthday, we celebrate a tremendous year in Bitcoin development. We formalized the Blockstream Research team, revamped the Blockstream Green UX, and built out Blockstream Jade to service a planetary scale.


We launched the Greenlight Lightning-as-a-Service, fully open-sourced the Liquid Network functionary code, and helped integrate splicing to the #LightningNetwork spec through the Core Lightning development process.


We’re grateful to all of you who HODL’d alongside us throughout the journey. Thank you for engaging with our content, sharing your feedback, contributing to the open-source projects we maintain, and always challenging us to make Bitcoin infrastructure better and more accessible.


We’re excited to keep pushing towards hyperbitcoinization in 2024, and we hope you’ll join us for the ride! 📈

We’ve just dropped Blockstream Talk episode #36 featuring Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, the new team behind the Aqua Bitcoin wallet! Samson and host Jesse Knutson smash Liquid FUD, talk about how to nudge nation states towards Bitcoin adoption, and explore the layer-2 tools needed to get them there.

🎧 Listen: http://tinyurl.com/blockstreamtalk36
📺 Watch: https://youtu.be/c_4yOGMJv44

We recently partnered with Alby on a 2.1M sats bounty to build an interoperable Liquid web wallet with their browser extension. The developer community quickly responded with an "Anser." Read more about Anser from the author directly here:

https://community.liquid.net/c/developers/introducing-anser-a-liquid-companion-for-alby

You can add Liquid to Alby in two simple steps.

First, generate a master key within Alby to sign Liquid transactions. Second, connect Alby to the Anser web app via the link here [https://anser.frk.wf]. You can now send and receive Liquid assets like LBTC and LUSDT with ease.

If you're a developer looking to incorporate Liquid into your web app, Anser may be one of the easiest ways: it's fully open-source and available as a standalone library. [https://github.com/riccardobl/anser-liquid]

We also want to invite any developers who are interested in building on Liquid and Lightning to the Build On L2 community [https://www.buildonl2.com/]. You can get help with your project, interact with other builders, and join the many livestreams we host. Feel free to join both the Liquid and Lightning forums available.

See you there. 🌊⚡️

In this special update, we look back on the second half of 2023, highlighting some of the updates to our portfolio of Bitcoin infrastructure products and progress made on the precipice of Bitcoin research and development.

https://blog.blockstream.com/blockstream-quarterly-h2-24/

Several new projects in recent months have been leveraging the layer-2 interoperability of Lightning and Liquid. Some of these projects include Boltz, Alby, and the Green and AQUA wallets. During a recent discussion on our Blockstream Talk podcast, Christian Decker, Head Greenlight engineer, elaborated on the benefits of a Lightning over Liquid (LoL) network. He explained how it would be seamlessly compatible with Lightning over Bitcoin, allowing for improved scaling and opening up new use cases for Bitcoin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQwAMwvLNA&t

We've just shipped Blockstream Talk #37 featuring one of the most important contributors to the open-source Liquid and Elements projects, and the Co-Founder of Vulpem Ventures, Marco Argentieri.


Jesse Knutson and Marco delve into Bitcoin layer-2 scaling solutions, from Liquid to Lightning and Ark, and discuss the incredible tools Marco has developed on Liquid, such as Marina Wallet, Fuji Money, and Tdex. They also cover covenants, sharing UTXOs, and bitcoin atomic swaps with Vulpem's latest offering, Banco. Dive into this conversation now to stay at the forefront of Bitcoin development.

📺 Watch: https://youtu.be/RObIWrDmH7U
🎧 Listen: https://blockstream-talk-23225031.simplecast.com/episodes/developing-bitcoin-commerce-with-layer-2s-and-vulpem-ventures-featuring-marco-argentieri-blockstream-talk-37

A proposed solution to #Bitcoin scalability and lack of expressivity is the addition of new covenant opcodes. Each new covenant proposal has its own advantages, disadvantages, and trade-offs, but all include a certain level of Miner Extractable Value (MEV) risk. Given these inherent traits in the nature of programmable money, what level of risk is acceptable?

We explore this question by examining MEV and the limitations of Bitcoin Script. We also look at some of the covenant proposals, such as CAT + CSFS and CTV, as well as the new Simplicity blockchain language, an alternative to Bitcoin Script that is more expressive with static analysis and formal verification.

The latest from Blockstream Research:

https://blog.blockstream.com/miner-extractable-value-mev-and-programmable-money-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

Most institutional blockchain projects have avoided using Bitcoin as a technical foundation due to its restricted-by-design nature. Yet, it's precisely Bitcoin's conservative approach to development strategy and design, epitomized by architectural choices like the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model, that gives it the robustness that financial institutions need.

Contrasted with the account model and overemphasis on smart contracting utilized by altcoin chains like Ethereum and Solana, Bitcoin's careful design may position it as the ideal starting point for operationally sound financial infrastructure that will ultimately disrupt the status quo.

Read more from our Chief Product Officer, Jeff Boortz:

https://blog.blockstream.com/why-bitcoins-utxo-model-is-best-for-blockchain-based-finance/