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Bitcoin Magazine
Blockstream Executive Peter Bain: Institutional Clients Say Bitcoin “Poised for a Big Bull Run”
Bitcoin is holding $81K through an equity selloff, a rising 10-year and unrest in Europe, and Blockstream CMO Peter Bain calls that “a really, really strong signal.” He joins Grace Remington and Sean Hagan to explain why the technology build-out comes before the price, what Blockstream’s new Lugano hub and consulting division mean for institutional adoption, and why Switzerland’s clear rules and banking depth make it the right launch market. He also gives the first update on the Liquid Network incident: the swap service is back and users can move Bitcoin to the main chain.
Chapters:
0:00 Bitcoin Holding $81K Through the Equity Selloff Is a “Strong Signal”
0:44 Build-Out Before Price: Adoption, Stablecoins and Tokenized Equities
1:26 Blockstream’s Lugano Hub and New Consulting Division for Institutions
2:10 Why Treasury Companies Are Mostly American and Why Switzerland Is Next
3:19 Quantum Is Decades Away: Bitcoin’s Real Weak Spots
4:22 The PHP Exploit and Why Everyone Must Rethink How Software Ships
5:07 Making Bitcoin Quantum Resistant: Blockstream Research and Signature Schemes
6:18 How Consensus Reaches a Quantum Upgrade and the Bitcoin Security Consortium
7:33 Liquid Network Hack Update: Swap Service Restored, Network Back Online
8:27 Outlook Through 2027: “Poised for a Big Bull Run”
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
This post Blockstream Executive Peter Bain: Institutional Clients Say Bitcoin “Poised for a Big Bull Run” first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Patrick Green.
LND’s October 22 release candidate brings attention to a quiet source of wallet risk: outside fee estimates that software treats too generously. The 0.21.5 development notes describe a ceiling for values received through an external fee API, alongside fixes to other node operations.
TL;DRThe release notes say external estimates previously had a lower bound without the corresponding upper bound. The documented repair limits the estimate before it can flow into fee-sensitive wallet operations.
The associated change applies a ceiling of 10,000 satoshis per virtual byte and also bounds the API’s minimum-relay estimate. That ceiling is an extreme-value guardrail. It is not a statement that such a fee is normal, economical or required by current network conditions.
A fee estimate is an input to a decision, not an instruction that must be obeyed at any cost. A service can return an unusable value because of an error, a changed data format or a compromised dependency. Bounding the input limits one way that an upstream problem can influence a wallet.
The larger operational issue connects with Bitcoin Core’s revised disclosure process: software that handles money needs both a method for finding problems and a path for getting repairs into use.
The GitHub release page identifies the build as a pre-release and says it requires no database migration. It provides signature and binary-verification instructions. Those details support checking what was downloaded; they do not demonstrate how it will behave in every node configuration.
The notes also describe a native SQL connection-pool deadlock fix. That matters because node reliability depends on storage behavior as well as network communication. A process that remains running while requests stop completing can still fail the applications depending on it.
Testing a candidate therefore needs to cover the service’s actual work: receiving requests, accessing storage, handling failures and restarting cleanly. The absence of a database migration removes one category of change, but it does not prove that every interaction with existing data is unchanged.
For payment providers, that is distinct from the custody controls explored in shared-key Bitcoin lending. Keeping signing authority secure and keeping a payment node functioning are separate responsibilities.
The same distinction explains why custody and recovery arrangements cannot replace software maintenance. This candidate offers specific changes to evaluate. The final release decision and an operator’s deployment decision remain additional steps.
Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Telephony is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, being able to talk to people in far off places is kind of neat, at least in theory. On the other hand, you’re usually reliant on a centralized network, which isn’t ideal to the mindset of most hackers.[Gautam]’s MeshLive project deals with that last one, offering a decentralized mesh network solution based on Bluetooth for Android phones that can handle both voice and video.
Rather than relying on dedicated hardware, this particular mesh piggybacks on your phone, and exists only as an Android application. Calls are end-to-end encrypted for both voice and video — though two-way video calling is still experimental. More testing has gone into video broadcasting, where a stream goes out one-way. The capability is available for voice, as well.
Each user has a unique identifier that can be scanned to create contacts, but it isn’t otherwise clearly identifiable to everybody. You’ll only appear with a random name that changes every 15 minutes to other users in range who aren’t your contacts. Range is of course the Achilles heel of this project, since it’s using the Bluetooth hardware of ordinary smartphones. It’s possible to extend the range of Bluetooth significantly with the right hardware, but we imagine most folks aren’t carrying directional antennas around with them. While every phone does forward the signal to as many others as it can, it can only do so for about 20 meters.
Of course LoRa remains the protocol of choice for mesh networking, though it’s normally used for text messages only. We have seen voice packets over LoRa, but anything LoRa requires dedicated hardware while this only requires an app.
For as many sensors, cameras, and computers as there are on modern cars, they ought to be a dream to poke around in and customize to one’s liking. Unfortunately they’re generally plagued by the same locked-down, proprietary software that most consumer electronics ship with, making it very difficult to interact with these systems in ways the manufacturer doesn’t approve of. There are a few exceptions to this rule, though, and [Sasha] built this system which backs up the footage from their electric car’s on-board cameras automatically to a NAS.
The system is built around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W which plugs directly into a USB port in the car’s glovebox. To set it up, the software only needs to be flashed onto the Pi and then it can be controlled from a smartphone. It can connect to any NAS over a variety of protocols and keeps track of what footage has been backed up, and can even automatically restart a backup if the car drives away before it has completed. It also automatically frees up space on the car’s internal drives by deleting any files that have already been synced to the NAS. All of the data is kept in the user’s control as well, and nothing leaves the LAN unless the user sets up backups to a cloud service on their own.
If you have the correct electric car and a Pi other than a Zero 2 W, [Sasha] also has a package for other Raspberry Pis that should work. Unfortunately this was designed for a specific electric car; other makes and models won’t work with this out of the box, but we hope that won’t stop others from checking out the GitHub page anyway trying to figure out what’s going on under the hoods of their car’s electrical and computer systems. Sometimes this leads to things you might not expect, like using the car itself as a video game controller.
Bitcoin Magazine
Square Tech and GOAT Network Sign MOU to Advance AI Agent-Powered Stablecoin Payments in South Korea
SEOUL, October 22, 2026 – Square Tech (KOSDAQ: 148250) announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GOAT Network, the Bitcoin-secured infrastructure for agentic commerce, to explore AI agent-powered stablecoin payment services in South Korea as part of its Digital Solutions business. DAC Labs, the core infrastructure developer behind GOAT Network, has also joined the agreement to provide technical support.
As an initial priority, the companies will explore integrating GOAT Network’s AI agent payment technology into a stablecoin payment program for foreign tourists that Square Tech is currently developing with Lordsystem, a South Korean mobile identity verification company. The program aims to enable foreign visitors to verify their identities using mobile passports and make payments at participating merchants in South Korea using US dollar-denominated stablecoins. The partners will also evaluate potential expansion into additional services, including digital gift card and voucher purchases, subject to applicable legal and regulatory reviews.
Under the agreement, Square Tech will lead domestic business development, merchant partnerships, and regulatory engagement. GOAT Network will provide its AI agent payment technology and network infrastructure, while DAC Labs will support technical integration, security reviews, and network operations.
The collaboration comes as South Korea continues to develop its regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence and digital assets. The country’s AI Basic Act, formally known as the Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Establishment of a Foundation for Trust, came into effect in January 2026. Meanwhile, discussions are underway in the National Assembly on the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, which seeks to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets, including Korean won-denominated stablecoins.
At Korea Blockchain Week 2026 in Seoul, GOAT Network demonstrated these capabilities through an interactive agent-powered purchasing experience, highlighting early consumer interest in AI-driven commerce. The collaboration with Square Tech represents a further step toward bringing these capabilities into real-world payment applications.
The proposed solution will incorporate technical safeguards designed to ensure trust, security, and transparency when AI agents execute payments on behalf of users. Each AI agent will be assigned a verifiable on-chain identity based on the ERC-8004 standard. Spending limits, user authorization mechanisms, and comprehensive transaction records will also be implemented to enable transparent monitoring of AI agent payment activities.
In the initial phase, the companies plan to support US dollar-denominated stablecoins through arrangements that meet applicable licensing and regulatory requirements. They also intend to establish the technical foundation for potential support of Korean won-denominated stablecoins as South Korea’s digital asset regulatory framework evolves.
Kangho Kim, CEO of Square Tech, said: “South Korea is rapidly establishing the regulatory foundations for AI and digital assets. The next important step is translating these developments into practical services that consumers and merchants can use. Through this collaboration, Square Tech aims to integrate global technologies into South Korea’s domestic payment environment and regulatory framework, while building a new payment ecosystem that brings AI and stablecoins into everyday transactions.”
Kevin Liu, Co-Founder and CEO of GOAT Network, said: “The next evolution of AI agents goes beyond understanding user requests to making purchases on their behalf. For agentic commerce to scale, businesses need to make their products and services accessible to AI agents, while consumers need assurance that purchases are authorized, spending stays within defined limits, and payments are secure. Through our collaboration with Square Tech, we aim to explore how these capabilities can support real-world commerce in South Korea.”
The companies intend to comply with all applicable South Korean laws and regulations, including the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, and the Act on Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Transaction Information. Where necessary, they will work with appropriately licensed service providers to deliver the proposed services. Consumer-facing features will be introduced in phases, subject to legal and regulatory review.
Square Tech was founded in 2002 and is based in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The company develops and produces LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) components and substrates used in the telecommunications, defense, and automotive industries, and has been listed on KOSDAQ since 2016. Through its Digital Solutions business, Square Tech is expanding into digital asset payments. The company is developing a stablecoin payment program for foreign tourists with Lordsystem, a South Korean mobile identity verification company, and is pursuing cooperation with Anchorage Digital, a US-based institutional digital asset platform, on institutional digital asset infrastructure.
GOAT Network is Bitcoin-secured infrastructure for agentic commerce, connecting businesses, consumers, developers, and AI agents. Its core product, GOAT Flow, makes products and services discoverable, understandable, and purchasable by AI agents, while GOAT AgentKit provides developers with tools to build agent-native applications. GOAT Network’s core infrastructure is developed by DAC Labs, a research and engineering company specializing in blockchain infrastructure, zero-knowledge technology, and AI agent systems.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored press release. Readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence before acting on any information presented in this article.
This post Square Tech and GOAT Network Sign MOU to Advance AI Agent-Powered Stablecoin Payments in South Korea first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Bitcoin Magazine.
Bitcoin Magazine
Liquid Network Announces Final Stages of Recovery Following Massive Hack
The Liquid Network on Tuesday said that things were up and running again, over one month after hackers stole 4,000 bitcoin, worth about $320 million at the time, from the network’s federation wallet before returning most of it in a “white hat” operation.
Writing in a blog post, the Liquid Network said that it was entering “the final stages of recovery with enhanced security.”
Hackers in September stole 4,000 bitcoins from the federation wallet that backs the Blockstream sidechain. Blockstream was able to negotiate to get back most of the funds.
LBTC:BTC swaps full service again. swap @liquid_btc to/from mainchain BTC on @side_swap. swap @liquid_btc to/from lightning on @AquaBitcoin. https://t.co/csslFIIRAE
— Adam Back (@adam3us) October 20, 2026
“The final phase of restoration involves reestablishing the network’s full 1:1 bitcoin backing, followed by the controlled reactivation of Federation peg-outs for authorized PAK key holders,” the Liquid blog post read.
“The Federation, Blockstream, and independent security experts have made substantial progress toward this objective, with the necessary technical infrastructure and safeguards now in place.”
The post added that it had introduced phased swaps again. Blockstream CEO Adam Back wrote on X on Tuesday that swaps were working again.
Liquid is a layer-2 created by Blockstream that allows users to quickly move assets backed 1:1 with bitcoin. People can swap stablecoins for bitcoin and bitcoin on the Lightning Network on apps that support the Liquid Network.
Hackers were able to get 4,000 bitcoins by exploiting an inflation bug on the Liquid sidechain to create over 4,000 LBTC — a token supposedly backed by bitcoin — that did not exist before and cash them out for real on-chain BTC.
The hackers claimed to be white hat hackers who then had an exchange with Blockstream via messages written into Bitcoin blocks. Though critics argue they were not so ‘white’ since they kept 15% of the stolen funds, worth millions.
In one message, the hackers slammed Blockstream as “delusional, greedy, and arrogant,” and threatened to reveal all of Blockstream’s encrypted messages in the exchange unless the company paid the hackers 10% of the bitcoins as an official bounty.
“You SHALL pay 10% using your own money as bug bounty or you will cause all your holders a 15% loss for your irresponsibility and stinginess,” the message read.
The hackers are still holding onto around 600 bitcoins — or 15% of the total funds — worth close to $50 million at today’s prices as per the latest public knowledge.
It is not clear if Blockstream reached a settlement with the hackers in private.
This post Liquid Network Announces Final Stages of Recovery Following Massive Hack first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
Summary Bullets:
• US investment in fiber is accelerating at an all-time high as AT&T, Zayo, Verizon, and Lumen expand their networks to support AI and data-center growth.
• Building more fiber does not automatically translate into greater profits; customer demand, network utilization and investment discipline will determine the winners.
The US fiber market is in the middle of an AI gold rush, with telecom providers appearing determined that the machines never have to wait for bandwidth. AT&T’s recent partnership with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and CPP Investments adds momentum to an investment race that already includes Zayo, Lumen, and Verizon. Each company is reshaping their networks to capture future demand from AI workloads and data center expansion. The enthusiasm is understandable, but with so many carriers reaching for their shovels, a more fundamental question remains: will AI demand deliver the returns the industry needs or will some investors be left digging for profit?
AT&T’s deal points to a shift in how communication service providers (CSPs) fund the next phase of their network expansion. By partnering with investment and private equity firms, AT&T can combine external funds with its existing fiber assets, accelerating deployment while sharing the financial risk. The venture’s wholesale, open-access model also widens the potential customer base to include operators seeking to support enterprise connectivity, data center interconnections, and AI workloads. The arrangement carries a trade-off, however. External funding eases pressure on AT&T’s balance sheet and speeds up the build, but AT&T must share future revenue and profit with its investment partners.
AI has now become the industry’s preferred justification for fiber spending, and every major carrier is investing in fiber networks to support the next phase of digital infrastructure growth. The expansion of hyperscale data centers and AI computing facilities is increasing the demand for those high-bandwidth connections between data centers, cloud platforms, and enterprise locations, which makes low latency and network resilience more important. Capacity alone will not guarantee success. Carriers must identify the routes and markets with the greatest potential, secure customer commitments, and maximize utilization to generate sustainable returns. AI is accelerating the investment cycle, but commercial discipline will determine which providers turn infrastructure spending into profitable growth.
As investment in US fiber networks continues to gain pace, providers must ensure that spending is backed by real customer demand rather than expectations of future growth. With AT&T, Verizon, Zayo, and Lumen all expanding their networks, competition will also grow across key markets, putting pressure on revenues and profitability. Partnerships like these can help spread investment costs and attract additional customers, but success will come down to how effectively CSPs use their networks. Routes that connect to established data center hubs may offer more immediate opportunities, while investments in emerging markets may bring greater uncertainty. Carriers must balance opportunity to capture growth against the risk of building capacity which may take years to generate adequate revenue.
AI is creating a significant opportunity for the US fiber market, but scale and timing of the future demand is less certain. As these four expand their networks, CSPs must look beyond growth and focus on profitable returns. AT&T’s partnership highlights one way to fund network expansion, while sharing the risk, however all carriers must have the customer demand to support long-term revenue growth. With competition increasing, more fiber will not automatically translate into greater profits. That leaves the question of whether success will come to those with the largest networks, or those making the smartest investment decisions.
The post The Great US Fiber Gold Rush: AI is the Excuse, but Who Will Actually Make Money? appeared first on IT Connection.
With the advent of blockchain technology, the way transactions and records in the digital world are handled has been revolutionized. Rather than being dependent solely on the central authority, blockchain technology allows multiple parties to manage and verify shared records using the decentralized nature of the blockchain network.
While a lot of applications have been built on existing blockchain platforms, some require an extra blockchain due to technical reasons or for other concerns. While there are advantages to creating an extra blockchain, certain aspects must be considered.
It is important to understand the pros and cons of using an independent blockchain to determine its viability.
Running one’s own blockchain network consists of setting up a blockchain protocol that has its own settings, validation system, and operational principles. Depending on the type of blockchain network, a token of its own, special validators, and governance system may be part of it as well.
In general, blockchain networks are based on various participation types. In public blockchain networks, anyone can participate, whereas in private networks, only approved entities participate in the network operations. In consortium blockchain networks, various organizations operate the network.
Different participation types bring various challenges in terms of transparency, management, decentralization, and security. The correct approach depends on the application area.
An independent blockchain gives the freedom to design its protocol rules based on some particular demands. They could include the validation of transactions, block creation, fees, and updates to the software.
For instance, an organization-specific blockchain would favor the accessibility and predictability of transactions. On the other hand, the demands of a public blockchain may include the open nature and anti-censorship features.
Flexibility is advantageous when the application’s demands are in disagreement with the pre-existing design of the blockchain. But increased control translates into increased responsibility too.
Consensus algorithms enable the participating nodes in the blockchain network to reach an agreement about the state of the blockchain. There exist different algorithms that provide different tradeoffs between security, efficiency, energy usage, and decentralization.
Proof of Stake utilizes incentives and validators. Proof of Authority makes use of validators, whereas Byzantine Fault Tolerant algorithms assist in reaching agreements among a group of nodes under certain failure scenarios.
Each consensus algorithm impacts transaction confirmation and the network’s response to disruptions differently. There isn’t a consensus algorithm that would suit all situations and is the best in all of them.
Fees for transactions on public blockchains can be subject to change depending on the level of demand on the network. The benefit of an independent blockchain is that there will be more flexibility with respect to the setting of the fees and how the transactions can be processed.
Some examples of fee structures include fixed parameters, dynamic fees, or other ways of paying for transaction fees. In any case, low transaction fees do not mean the absence of costs incurred by the network itself.
Depending on its structure, the standalone blockchain could create rules concerning who is allowed to become node operators, process transactions, or gain access to specific records.
This can prove helpful where there are several organizations that want to maintain a common ledger, but within certain participation policies. Permissioned blockchain systems allow restricting transaction validation operations to particular participants.
However, there are also downsides to introducing participation control. The greater control over participation can lead to less openness and decentralization, so the blockchain design should suit user needs.
The blockchain being created is not guaranteed security because of the existing network since it depends on many other factors such as the design of the protocols, the number of validators, the implementation, and the resources that will be used to secure the system.
A smaller number of validators makes coordination easier but may be more prone to collusion or service disruption. Poor consensus and software bugs may cause problems with transactions and availability of the network.
In order to ensure security, there should be extensive testing, code review and vulnerabilities detection.
It is not sufficient to have software that generates blocks. Communication between nodes needs to take place, transactions need to be verified, and data in the network should be accessible.
Running one’s own blockchain network also entails planning for software updates, back-ups, monitoring, recovery, and compatibility between different versions of the protocol.
All of this should take place even after the launch of the blockchain network. Otherwise, the network might experience problems in the future.
The operation of a blockchain can be significantly user-dependent. A newly developed blockchain would not possess as many integrations, tools for developers, liquidity, and community engagement as a preexisting platform.
Participation can take time to build up. Lack of participation may limit the functionalities of the network and make it challenging to have a properly decentralized validation community.
The linking of different blockchains can pose technical problems. It can include bridging, messaging systems, and other types of interoperability solutions which each comes with its own set of security issues.
Governance is also an issue that needs to be thought about. The blockchain needs a way for participants to propose and pass new protocols. Different opinions on upgrades and network policies can slow down decision making, sometimes resulting in diverging chains.
Maintaining a private blockchain network provides increased autonomy in relation to the rules of the network, its consensus algorithm, transaction costs, and participants. Yet, it entails constant spending on security, infrastructure, maintenance, and ecosystem development.
The decision to maintain one’s own blockchain network should be based on the requirements and needs of the business. With careful consideration of both strengths and weaknesses, businesses will be able to assess whether it is necessary to develop their own blockchain network or opt for an existing platform.
Exploring the Benefits and Limitations of Running Your Own Blockchain Network was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
In BDK’s Electrum client, the loop that gathers fee data for a wallet has a comment on line 588 of the 0.23.2 source that says exactly what it should do:
let prev_tx = self.fetch_tx(outpoint.txid)?;
// Ensure server returns the expected txout.
let txout = prev_tx
.output
.get(vout as usize)
The only check under that comment is that output number vout exists. Nothing checks that prev_tx is the transaction the wallet asked for. fetch_tx sends a txid to the Electrum server, takes back whatever transaction the server returns and caches it under the txid it asked for. The output then goes into a map keyed by the outpoint the wallet asked about, and that map is where BDK gets input values when it works out the fee on a transaction whose inputs the wallet doesn’t own.
So for a parent the wallet doesn’t already hold, a server could answer with any transaction that has enough outputs, and its amount would become that input’s value in the wallet’s fee numbers. That’s as far as I can follow it in the code. fetch_tx also serves the wallet’s own history, and I haven’t traced what a swapped transaction does on that path, or run any of this against a server that lies.
The fix is six lines in fetch_tx: compute the txid of what came back and return an error if it isn’t the one requested. It was merged to master on 24 April as PR 2188.
Master isn’t what gets published, though. bdk_electrum 0.24.0 came out on 8 May without the check; I diffed the published sources, and its fetch_tx is the same as 0.23.2’s. The backport, PR 2228, was merged on 16 June into a branch called release/chain-0.23.x, and that name nearly caught me out. I read it as the 0.23 line getting the fix. It’s the release branch for bdk_chain 0.23, and bdk_electrum’s 0.24 releases come off it. The fix sat merged there for 118 days, until 0.24.1 was published on 12 October at 05:29 UTC, 171 days after it first landed.
Cargo treats 0.23 and 0.24 as incompatible, the way it treats any minor bump before 1.0. A crate that asks for bdk_electrum 0.23 gets 0.23.2 at most, and no 0.23 release has the check. Moving to 0.24 also moves electrum-client from 0.24 to 0.25, so it takes an edit to the manifest, and cargo update won’t do it.
crates.io lists 11 crates that depend on bdk_electrum. Two use it only in tests. Of the other nine, five ask for 0.23 and four for 0.24. LDK Node is one of the five. Its 0.7.1 release came out at 13:53 UTC on 12 October, eight hours and 24 minutes after 0.24.1, still on bdk_electrum 0.23, and it asks for previous outputs in both its sync and its full scan. It does fill the client’s cache from its own wallet first, so parents it already holds never go to the server. fedimint-ldk-node 0.7.0 asks for 0.23 too. LDK Node’s main branch has moved to 0.24.0, which resolves to 0.24.1 on a fresh lockfile, so its next release should carry the check.
Downloads tell it from the other side. On 13 October, the first full day 0.24.1 existed, crates.io counted 2,050 downloads of bdk_electrum, and 530 were 0.24.1. 799 were 0.23.2, the last of the line that has no fix. Downloads are CI runs and mirrors as much as people, so I wouldn’t read them as users, but they’re the only count there is.
The case where any of this matters is a node pointed at an Electrum server somebody else runs. I don’t know of a way to count LDK Node deployments set up like that. Until LDK Node ships a release on 0.24, the apps built on it can’t get the check without patching LDK Node itself.
BDK’s Electrum txid check took 171 days to ship, and 5 of the 9 crates using it can’t get it was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Bitcoin Magazine
Researchers Build First Working Post-Quantum Defense for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network
Whether or not quantum computers will break Bitcoin one day is a hot topic.
But what about second-layer solutions like Lightning?
Well, researchers from East Texas A&M University, North American University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Florida Institute of Technology have been working on that.
JUST IN: East Texas A&M University students announce they've built the first post-quantum security solution for the Bitcoin Lightning Network
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 22, 2026
In an announcement Tuesday, the team of researchers said that they built what they describe as the first full post-quantum security design for the Lightning Network.
As first uncovered in a research paper in September, the team said they added post-quantum cryptography to Lightning’s communications, payment requests and related systems, implemented in Rust-Lightning.
It works like this: The solution layers new quantum-resistant cryptography on top of Lightning’s existing cryptography rather than replacing it. It uses ML-DSA digital signatures and ML-KEM key exchange, post-quantum algorithms standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, alongside the classical methods Lightning already relies on.
In this hybrid design, an attacker would have to break both the new and the old cryptography to compromise a connection or forge a payment request.
According to the team led by Dr. Ahmet Kurt, an assistant professor in East Texas A&M’s Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, it took about three to four months and roughly 11,000 lines of code — and it’s a complete working implementation, not just a small demo.
Lightning lets users make fast, cheap Bitcoin payments through a network of off-chain channels instead of recording each one on the blockchain.
Its cryptography could eventually be broken by powerful quantum computers, and that risk exists even if Bitcoin itself gets upgraded, because Lightning has its own communication and payment systems, the team said.
They added that their work demonstrates that Lightning’s off-chain systems can begin preparing for the quantum era independently while others focus on solutions for the mainnet.
Quantum researchers have warned that a time will come when Bitcoin’s software — which underpins the biggest and strongest computer network in the world — will need to be upgraded to deal with quantum computing.
While some crypto VC firms have urged action, top developers in the space have argued that many of today’s quantum computers have limited capabilities.
Still, they have noted that their development could arrive unexpectedly — just like advances with artificial intelligence — and have started developing some solutions, including top Bitcoin infrastructure firm, Blockstream.
This post Researchers Build First Working Post-Quantum Defense for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
© The Associated Press
Bitcoin Magazine
AI Coding Agents Drive Surge in Bitcoin Integration Requests: Breez
Bitcoin software company Breez said demand for its developer tools has surged since AI coding agents went mainstream, with partnership inquiries rising roughly 14-fold as developers, and increasingly the agents they deploy, look to add bitcoin payments to their apps.
In a company blog post, it tied the jump directly to Anthropic’s Claude Code, which launched as a research preview in February 2025 and became generally available three months later.
Before 2025, Breez said, most prospective partners fell into three camps: committed bitcoin enthusiasts, crypto developers, and fintech firms that treat bitcoin as an asset class.
Since Claude Code arrived, the company said, it has heard from many developers with little or no bitcoin experience. Requests have come from fitness apps, messaging apps that want users to send each other money, an eSIM service for travelers, and the team behind a mushroom-identification app.
Breez said many of these developers pick bitcoin for speed. Setting up traditional payment acceptance, including a bank account and cross-border transfers, can take weeks or months, while the company says its SDK can be running within minutes.
Breez said a growing share of inquiries now come from software, not people. The company said it regularly fields requests from coding agents writing on behalf of the companies that deploy them.
The company argues agents favor bitcoin because it is permissionless. An agent can build an app and set up payments for users worldwide without opening a bank account, passing onboarding checks or signing forms.
“Bitcoin is agnostic about whether the code of its current owner and user is composed of DNA base pairs or weights in a neural net,” Breez wrote.
That same absence of gatekeeping has long drawn scrutiny from financial regulators, who require traditional payment providers to verify customers.
Breez said its newest SDK implementation, built on the Bitcoin scaling protocol Spark, handled the added volume without problems.
The company framed the shift as an update to investor Marc Andreessen’s 2011 essay arguing that software is eating the world, saying AI is now eating software. It compared Bitcoin’s role to background infrastructure like electrical sockets and subsea cables.
This post AI Coding Agents Drive Surge in Bitcoin Integration Requests: Breez first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
Bitcoin Magazine
WhiteBIT Integrates Lightning Network for Fast and Cheap Bitcoin Transactions
The Lightning Network continues to find use cases.
Crypto exchange WhiteBIT announced on Thursday that the platform has integrated the network to help users quickly and efficiently move funds.
Powered by BTC infrastructure provider Voltage, the Swiss exchange said that bitcoin withdrawals and deposits can be made over the network. A number of major exchanges — including Coinbase and Kraken — have integrated the second-layer solution in recent years.
— WhiteBIT (@WhiteBit) October 8, 2026
Faster $BTC transactions via the Lightning Network — using a QR code or payment details.
Deposit fee: 0.25%
Withdrawal fee: 0.15%
Move $BTC at Lightning speed. Learn more: https://t.co/nt0svdMqg5 pic.twitter.com/WHfmRKT6QI
“WhiteBIT’s mission is to make blockchain technology accessible and widely adopted by delivering practical, user-friendly solutions for digital assets,” WhiteBIT Founder and CEO Volodymyr Nosov said in a statement.
“Adding Lightning support brings us closer to this goal as we are making Bitcoin faster and more useful for customers who want to top up accounts, send and receive funds, and use Bitcoin across more real-world flows.”
Zug-based WhiteBIT, the 17th biggest exchange by transaction volume, according to CoinGecko data, added that the launch supports a faster Bitcoin rail with use cases for “remittances, exchange funding, merchant-style QR payments, and interoperability with Lightning-enabled wallets and applications.”
Transaction volume on Lightning has surged this year. The reason, broadly, is that exchanges are using the network to move funds because it’s so cheap and fast.
Launched in 2018, Lightning was previously pushed for smaller transactions like tipping or buying a cup of coffee.
The network also offers more privacy than Bitcoin’s main chain: because Lightning payments are settled off-chain rather than recorded on the public blockchain, individual payments are harder to trace.
This post WhiteBIT Integrates Lightning Network for Fast and Cheap Bitcoin Transactions first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
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