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.
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.
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.
Counterfeit Ledger Hardware Hits Chinese E-Commerce at Official Prices
A Brazilian researcher disclosed a sophisticated counterfeit Ledger Nano S Plus with embedded WiFi and Bluetooth sold via Chinese e-commerce platforms April 17, 2026—a hardware-level supply-chain attack distinct from and more dangerous than the concurrent $9.5M fake-app theft.
Fedimint v0.11 ships NAT traversal, unlocking home mint deployment
Fedimint v0.11.0-beta.1 integrates Iroh networking to let guardians run community Bitcoin mints behind firewalls without port forwarding, making one-click deployment on Start9 and Umbrel possible for non-technical operators.
Bitcoin Core v31.0rc2 Tagged, Final Release Weeks Away
Bitcoin Core v31.0rc2 was tagged on March 25, 2026, marking the final quality-lock phase before the next major reference implementation release, targeting early April.