Block's Bitkey adds screen, finally closes hardware wallet's biggest hole
Block launched a new Bitkey hardware wallet with a secure touchscreen on April 27, addressing the original device's structural flaw: users had to blindly trust their phone to approve transactions and security settings.
Core Lightning Hotfix Patches Protocol Bug Days After Release
Core Lightning v26.04.1 shipped April 25 to fix protocol correctness bugs in negative routing fees discovered within days of v26.04, forcing node operators to upgrade immediately to restore correct network behavior.
Core Lightning v26.04 Graduates Splicing, Hardens Privacy
Blockstream released Core Lightning v26.04 on April 20, moving channel splicing out of experimental status and adding peer message padding to reduce traffic analysis — the first major step toward making Lightning nodes cheaper and more private to operate.
Bitcoin Core v31.0 Ships Mandatory Tor Privacy by Default
Bitcoin Core v31.0 released April 15, 2026, makes Tor/I2P broadcast mandatory by default for node operators, the most significant privacy default change in years, while shipping a redesigned cluster mempool and embedded ASMap data.
Core Lightning v26.04 RC2 Ships Message Padding, Closes Privacy Gap
Core Lightning v26.04 RC2 (April 2, 2026) adds peer message padding to resist traffic analysis — the first Lightning implementation to ship uniform-length padding by default — plus user-facing splice commands and 20% smaller binaries.
Core Lightning v26.04 RC2: Splicing Graduates to Production
Core Lightning v26.04 RC2 promotes splicing from experimental to stable user-facing commands, enabling channel resizing without downtime. This moves Lightning toward true 'one-balance' wallets and cuts transaction costs in half.
Bitcoin Core v31.0rc2 Tagged as P2P Privacy Fix Targets Final Release
Bitcoin Core v31.0rc2 was tagged on March 25, 2026, with a final release targeting early April — and an OpenSats grant is driving a live fingerprinting-attack mitigation into the same codebase.
Core Lightning v26.04rc1 Ships splicein, spliceout, and BIP-39 Recovery
Core Lightning v26.04rc1, tagged March 26 2026, delivers purpose-built splice commands and BIP-39 seed phrases — closing the operational gaps that have kept self-sovereign Lightning node operation cumbersome.
BIP446 and BIP448 Enter Draft Status, Targeting LN-Symmetry
BIP446 (OP_TEMPLATEHASH) and BIP448 (Taproot-native Re-bindable Transactions), co-authored by Greg Sanders, Antoine Poinsot, and Steven Roose, formally entered Draft BIP status via GitHub PR #1974, the first complete Taproot-native covenant bundle to reach the official Bitcoin standards track.
LND Merges Onion Message Forwarding, Closing BOLT12 Gap with Core Lightning
Lightning Labs merged onion message forwarding into LND via PR #10089, the prerequisite capability for BOLT12 offers support and a direct challenge to Core Lightning's year-long lead on the protocol.
Core Lightning v26.04rc1 Debuts splicein and spliceout Commands
Core Lightning v26.04rc1, tagged March 26 2026, introduces high-level splicein and spliceout commands that abstract years of low-level splicing complexity into operator-ready RPC calls, marking a structural maturation of Lightning channel management.