Fedimint backtracks to stability as production deployments scale
Fedimint's v0.11.2-alpha release signals the ecash project now maintains a separate production branch, revealing active federation deployments at scale.
Fedimint's Gateway Fee-Sort Cuts Privacy Cost for Ecash Users
Fedimint v0.11.1 released April 21 automates lowest-fee Lightning gateway selection, reducing the per-transaction cost of privacy for federated ecash users.
BitGo Embeds Lightning into Regulated Custody, First Federally Chartered Bank Move
BitGo, an OCC-supervised digital asset trust bank, now offers Lightning Network payments directly from qualified custody via Voltage partnership, removing infrastructure barriers for institutional clients.
LQWD deploys 267 Bitcoin as live Lightning routing capital
A publicly-traded Lightning infrastructure operator now holds 267 BTC deployed directly as productive routing liquidity, signaling institutional commitment to Lightning as an asset class, not a passive treasury.
Bitcoin Core's First Memory Safety Bug Exposes 43% of Live Nodes
Bitcoin Core disclosed CVE-2024-52911, a memory safety vulnerability affecting versions 0.14.0-28.x; roughly 5,900 nodes remain unpatched despite the fix shipping in v29.0.
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.
Square Flips Bitcoin On for Millions of U.S. Merchants by Default
Block's Square platform automatically enabled Bitcoin Lightning payments for millions of eligible U.S. sellers, shifting from opt-in to opt-out with zero processing fees through 2026.
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.
LND v0.21 Forces Lightning Wallet Developers to Rewrite Payment Code
Lightning Labs released LND v0.21.0-beta.rc1, a major version that removes four legacy RPC endpoints and completes a SQL database migration — breaking any wallet still using deprecated payment APIs.
Fedimint v0.11 ships gateway recovery via mnemonic
Fedimint released v0.11 'Mint Condition' on April 21, 2026, adding mnemonic-based gateway recovery—the first real backup story for Lightning-connected ecash federations, directly addressing operator risk.
Bitcoin Core 31.0 Ships Private Transaction Broadcasting
Bitcoin Core 31.0, released April 20, 2026, adds a toggle for routing all transaction broadcasts through Tor or I2P, severing the IP-address-to-transaction link that chain analysis firms have relied on for years.
Core Lightning Ships Negative Fees, Rewires Channel Economics
Core Lightning v26.04 graduated negative routing fees to production today, allowing nodes to pay senders to route through specific channels—automating liquidity rebalancing and reshaping how the Lightning Network manages scarcity.
Fedimint v0.11.0 Ships Gateway Recovery via Mnemonic
Fedimint released v0.11.0 on April 17, 2026, with gateway recovery from seed phrases and NAT-transparent networking — removing the last major operational barrier to running community Bitcoin banking infrastructure.
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.
HRF Distributes 1.5B Satoshis Across 26 Freedom Tech Projects
Human Rights Foundation's largest Bitcoin Development Fund round ever — 1.5 billion satoshis to 26 grantees — funds privacy infrastructure, remittance bridges, and activist networks across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Bitcoin Knots Captures 22.6% of Network as Core Schism Deepens
Bitcoin Knots adoption surged to 5,599 nodes (22.6% of the network) after Core's OP_RETURN expansion, exposing a fundamental divide over whether Bitcoin should remain a lean monetary system or accommodate arbitrary 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.
BPI, Fedi, Cornell Launch First Empirical Study of Financial Privacy Behavior
The Bitcoin Policy Institute, Fedi, and Cornell University's Tech Policy Institute are publishing the first of four semi-annual reports on how Americans perceive financial privacy and how regulation shapes developer behavior, with Report 1 due April 2026.
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.