Blockstream

Calling all open-source developers, cryptographers and coding wizards: Blockstream is hosting a Simplicity hackathon in Turin, Italy, at Blox Space on May 16-17. Prizes include $3k in BTC for the winning team, plus Jade Plus wallets for other top teams. It’s free to attend, and you’ll get the chance to build directly with Blockstream engineers. Simplicity brings more expressive smart contracts to Bitcoin without sacrificing security, predictability, or auditability. Built to be resource-bounded and deterministic, it is designed for high-assurance financial applications without the fragility seen in other smart contract environments. Apply now: http://liquid.net/bootcamp

Built for exchanges, custodians, and teams running mission-critical Bitcoin infrastructure. Blockstream Explorer API 26.03 is out. Complete visibility into API usage patterns. Optimized performance for high-volume applications. Flexible security controls for enterprise workflows. What's new: historical analytics, faster query response, customizable token expiration, and production-grade rate limiting across free and paid tiers. Full release notes: https://blog.blockstream.com/enhanced-analytics-and-infrastructure-improvements-for-the-blockstream-explorer-api/

As the Liquid Network’s technical provider, Blockstream is sharing an updated roadmap for the core development workstreams it leads. 0-conf payments, quantum readiness, BitVM bridge exploration, institutional custody, Simplicity-based DeFi infrastructure, and much more are in development. Details. 👇 https://blog.blockstream.com/liquid-network-roadmap-0-conf-quantum-readiness-and-bitvm/

There is no concrete post-quantum signature scheme for Bitcoin today. But over the last year Blockstream Research has been working on exactly this. Director Jonas Nick lays out the proposal: OP_CHECKSHRINCS, a hash-based signature opcode for post-quantum Bitcoin. SHRINCS reaches up to 3 TPS on the compact path. 580-byte signatures from a dedicated signing device. A stateless fallback always available. Already demonstrated on Liquid. The C++ implementation, Simplicity verifier, and draft spec are all on GitHub. https://blog.blockstream.com/op_checkshrincs-a-hash-based-signature-opcode-for-post-quantum-bitcoin/

The results are in from the Blockstream Turin Simplicity Hackathon! 20 developers spent a weekend building real smart contracts on Simplicity covenant DEXs, inheritance tools, post-quantum wallets, and more. First place goes to: PQ Liquid Wallet, taking home $3,000 in bitcoin: PQ Liquid Wallet is the first wallet to test Blockstream's research on protecting Bitcoin from future quantum computers. Second and third place each take home a Blockstream Jade for every team member. Full breakdown of all six submissions on the blog. https://blog.blockstream.com/simplicity-developers-show-off-at-the-turin-hackathon/

Core Lightning 26.06 "Quantum-Resistant Lightning Channel" has shipped. Graceful shutdowns, precise send amounts, smarter payment retries, and enhanced payment privacy. Your Lightning node runs cleaner and your payments stay harder to observe. ⚡ The big architectural shift in this release is bwatch, a new block-watching plugin that fundamentally changes how CLN interacts with the Bitcoin blockchain. No more 30-second polling loops. Near-instant catch-ups on startup. Crash-resistant and built to scale. Legacy pay is now deprecated. The xpay evolution is here. 42 days. 236 commits. 19 contributors including Sangbida Chaudhuri and Rusty Russell, who designed bwatch from the ground up. Lightweight, customisable, spec-focused Lightning. That's what this community keeps building. ⚡ https://blog.blockstream.com/core-lightning-26-06-quantum-resistant-lightning-channel/?ref=blockstream-newsletter

When you run a Bitcoin node, you can prove the 21 million cap yourself. Every block. No trust required. The Zcash Orchard bug, undetected for four years, is a reminder of what you give up when supply verifiability is traded for privacy. The Liquid Network shows there is another way. Strong privacy with publicly verifiable supply. https://blog.blockstream.com/what-the-zcash-orchard-bug-reveals-about-verifiable-supply/

Simplicity's site just got a full redesign. Simplicity lets you prove exactly how a contract behaves before it goes live. No surprise fees, no transactions failing mid-execution. The security guarantees are part of the language, not bolted on after. Live on Liquid mainnet, running real financial contracts, and built for the developers and institutions building high-assurance Bitcoin applications. https://blog.blockstream.com/welcome-to-the-new-simplicity/

New 0-conf infrastructure for Liquid and other Elements-based deployments is here. Swap services, exchanges and applications that accept Liquid payments now have access to near-instant transfer times. Details in the technical explainer below. https://blog.blockstream.com/0-conf-for-elements-and-liquid-a-technical-explainer/

Simplicity has been live on Liquid mainnet for nearly a year. Now the full developer toolchain is here. Build high-assurance Bitcoin contracts in a zero-friction environment with autocomplete, instant testing, post-quantum signatures, and a finalized lending template. Here's what builders can ship today and what's coming next. https://blog.blockstream.com/building-on-simplicity-what-ships-today-what-is-coming-next/

Post-quantum signatures aren't one-size-fits-all, and now developers can find the SHRINCS setup that fits theirs. Blockstream Research's explorer lets you tune signature size, signing cost, and verification cost to match your wallet, node, or miner. Their sweep of 25,935 candidates found a fallback signature about 2 KB smaller than NIST's SLH-DSA, and 28% cheaper to verify. https://blog.blockstream.com/searching-for-shrincs-parameters/

Jade doesn’t use a physical secure element. We just published a full post on how the Virtual Secure Element works: https://blog.blockstream.com/jade-virtual-secure-element/

A popular concern says post-quantum signatures cannot run on the hardware wallets people already own. Blockstream Research implemented hash-based schemes on four popular devices. All four signed. SLH-DSA, the NIST standard, in about two minutes at worst. https://blog.blockstream.com/hardware-wallets-post-quantum-signatures/

Your Jade never has to touch the computer. QR Connect and air-gapped signing land in the desktop app, so Jade pairs, unlocks and signs entirely over QR codes. Lightning arrives too, in Beta. Switch it on in settings, no second app to run. https://blog.blockstream.com/blockstream-app-desktop-3-5-0/

Jade firmware 1.0.41 is out. It contains security updates and every user should upgrade as soon as they safely can. Jade is not affected by the Coldcard random number vulnerability. The reasoning, and everything we changed, is in the post. https://blog.blockstream.com/reflections-on-the-coldcard-fallout/

Core Lightning 26.06.7 is out and recommended for every node runner. It fixes vulnerabilities reported over the past three weeks, during a sharp rise in AI-generated reports across open source Bitcoin. Details stay under embargo for two weeks, then all published. https://blog.blockstream.com/core-lightning-26-06-7/

Blockstream Info has been rebuilt, for Bitcoin and Liquid. Watch the next block fill. Read real analysis on any transaction. Check Liquid's backing yourself, in one dashboard. Everything new: https://blog.blockstream.com/blockstream-explorer-rebuilt/

Following the recent incident affecting the Liquid Network and the movement of funds, Blockstream, as Liquid’s technical provider, and the Liquid Federation have been working diligently to resolve the ongoing situation and ensure the return of assets. Updated software has been deployed as the Federation members prepare the network for a coordinated restart. Our teams remain focused on further hardening the network. We want to thank the broader Bitcoin community for their patience, support, advice, and assistance throughout this process. We will continue to provide updates as progress is made.

We have published the technical security assessment of the September 6 Liquid incident, which details the root cause and mechanics of the exploit, an incident timeline, and the engineering and security changes being implemented in response. https://blog.blockstream.com/liquid-network-security-incident-assessment/

Core Lightning 26.06.8 is out, and every node runner should upgrade. This release fixes vulnerabilities responsibly reported over recent weeks. There is no embargo period: the release and fixes are available right now. A number of tests are being held back temporarily to make the underlying issues harder to reverse-engineer while node runners have time to upgrade. Please upgrade as soon as possible. https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning/releases/tag/v26.06.8