Crypto Insights
In this paper, Toby Sharp demonstrates a compact, executable, declarative C++ specification of Bitcoin consensus rules that syncs mainnet to tip in a few hours on a single thread. Bitcoin's consensus rules are encoded in the implementation of its reference client: "The code is the spec." Yet this code is unsuitable for formal verification due to side effects, mutable state, concurrency, and legacy design. A standalone formal specification would enable verification across reference client versions and against new implementations, strengthening decentralization by reducing consensus-splitting risks. Yet such a specification has long been considered intractable given Bitcoin consensus‘ complexity.
Sharp introduces the Hornet Domain-Specific Language (DSL), designed to encode these rules unambiguously for execution, enabling formal reasoning, consensus code generation, and AI-driven adversarial testing. The spec-driven Hornet Node offers a modern, modular complement to the reference client. Its clear, idiomatic style suits education, while its performance supports experimentation. Key architectural contributions include layered design, efficient data structures, and strong separation of concerns, supported by production-quality code examples. Together, Hornet Node and Hornet DSL provide the first credible path toward a pure, formal, executable specification of Bitcoin consensus.
MultiChannel and Its Optimizations: Building a High-Availability CP Database for the Lightning Network
The author notes that the Lightning Network can serve as a global CP (Consistency and Partition Tolerance) database, but it lacks high availability—a problem rooted in payment channels. To address this, he proposes MultiChannel and MultiPTLC, a high-availability CP database for global Bitcoin payments.
This design introduces a shift in trust dynamics: Lightning Service Providers (LSPs) must mutually trust one another with funds while ensuring user funds remain safe under all circumstances. To achieve high availability, the design reduces LSP security, requiring LSPs to entrust funds to the majority of peers in the same MultiChannel.
In further optimizations, the author proposes a nested Decker-Wattenhofer MultiChannel, which leverages a complex payment channel network to reduce—but not entirely eliminate—the need for inter-LSP trust, thereby preventing unauthorized access to funds.
The Core of Bitcoin Decentralized Governance: Free Users and Free Software
This article analyzes Bitcoin governance from the perspective of free users and free software, explaining how Bitcoin achieves high censorship resistance and its core values. The author argues that the foundation of Bitcoin as a censorship-resistant digital currency is free users, and the foundation of free users is free software.
The definition of “free software” comes from Richard Stallman’s four essential freedoms: the freedom to run programs for any purpose, to study and modify programs to suit one’s needs, to redistribute programs, and to distribute modified versions. “Free users” are those who can prevent centralization or censorship by choosing different software or rejecting unwanted changes.
The author emphasizes that cultivating free users requires education and tooling, which carries a cognitive effort—but this cost is necessary for autonomy and freedom, and there should not be any hidden decision-makers.
Developers, in this framework, are positioned as “servants of free users” rather than authorities. They should respect user preferences, provide transparent information, support diverse tools, promote coexistence of multiple implementations or clients, and respond thoughtfully to community feedback rather than enforcing decisions, avoiding misuse of technical influence.
Real-World First: How Nervape 3X Integrates Chips and Blockchain to Bring Web3 into Reality
This article explains the techniques and vision behind Nervape 3X (a modular physical collectible figure design by Nervape)— how it securely binds physical collectibles with on-chain assets using cryptographic chips and CKB smart contracts.
The design follows a “physical-first” principle: the physical object is primary and on-chain ownership must respect its reality. Off-chain, Nervape 3X uses built-in cryptographic chips (NTAG 424DNA) to dynamically encode and encrypt upon each scan. On-chain, smart contracts based on CKB’s Cell model and the Spore protocol manage asset state changes and transfer verification without requiring external trusted parties.
Future physical-digital assets require not only authenticity but also interoperable identity, programmable finance, and privacy protection. This approach represents a viable path for integrating real-world assets with blockchain, avoiding schemes that merely wrap replicated NFTs as RWA.
Jameson Lopp: Bitcoin Knots Was Never a Serious Project
Jameson Lopp, in his personal blog, states that Bitcoin Knots, led by Luke Dashjr, was never a serious project. Recent media hype (The Rage report) suggesting Dashjr is planning a Bitcoin hard fork should not be taken as indicative of mainstream Bitcoin development.
Lopp puts together Dashjr’s past security mistakes and long-standing conflicts with Bitcoin Core developers, questioning his leadership as a maintainer. He notes that Knots lacks strict code review and security guarantees from the core developer community and points out Dashjr’s controversial statements, portraying him as contrary to open-source collaboration and free-software values.
Replication of Quantum Factorisation Records with an 8-bit Home Computer, an Abacus, and a Dog
Quantum computing has been hyped as a tool capable of easily breaking modern cryptography. However, Peter Gutmann and Stephan Neuhaus point out that these experiments rely on special tricks and deliberately chosen easily factorable numbers, and do not pose a threat to real-world RSA systems. In a creative and humorous way, their paper debunks these quantum factorization claims.
They explain that many quantum factorization experiments use very specific, easy-to-factor numbers—such as numbers with prime factors that differ by only a small margin or preprocessed to simplify the problem—creating an illusion of power. Standard RSA key design requires prime factors with a minimum difference of 100 bits, far beyond the “easy numbers” used in these experiments.
Using an 8-bit 1981 VIC-20 home computer, an abacus, and a well-trained dog, they successfully “replicated” several so-called quantum factorization records (ranking: VIC-20 > abacus > dog > a certain quantum physical experiment). This emphasizes that such records are not special and pose no real threat to commonly used encryption.
They also propose standardized evaluation criteria for future quantum factorization, including: factors must be of a non-trivial size (64-bit or 128-bit), factor pairs must be two prime values with a large difference between them and containing a 50:50 mix of randomly distributed 0 and 1.
