The Frontier

Adam Curry's Lightning node was not live in the splits, preventing him from receiving live boostagrams on the previous show until Eric PP identified the issue.

Vlad states that the arrest of Samurai wallet developers created a chilling effect, leading to the shutdown or unfashionability of privacy projects like Wasabi Wallet and Mercury Wallet. Only custodial eCash on Lightning gained acceptance.

Z-Man proposed "towards a K of N Lightning Network node" on Delving Bitcoin, aiming for multi-sig self-custodial Lightning wallets. This concept allows K-of-N signing for one channel side, using nested Musig2 and FROST.

Enabling K-of-N Lightning channels requires modifying the Bolt specification to make the "sha-chain" (revocation key handling) optional. This is due to derivation challenges with distributed key material in multi-signature setups.

Merch notes that Z-Man's Lightning proposals often involve complex, interactive designs. This approach circumvents the need for ANYPREVOUT or other covenant proposals, which Z-Man believes are unlikely to be adopted.

Core Lightning's 26.04 release has removed splicing from experimental status, making it a default and production-ready feature. This marks a significant upgrade in Core Lightning's implementation of the splicing protocol.

Core Lightning #9046 fixes KeySend interoperability with LDK by increasing the final CLTV expiry value (safety margin) from 22 to 42. This matches LDK's expectation for receiving KeySend payments.

LDK has promoted zero-fee commitment channels from experimental to production status. This feature replaces two anchor outputs with one shared `pay-to-anchor` output, offering more flexibility for future fee conditions.

LDK #4558 extends receiver-side timeout, previously for multi-path payments, to KeySend payments. This allows receivers to fail back stuck HTLCs and free up slots without waiting for a full CLTV expiry.

LND #9985 promotes simple Taproot channels to production status. It incorporates `OP_CHECKSIGVERIFY` for Tapscripts and improved map-based nonce handling linked to funding transaction IDs, serving as groundwork for future splicing.

BTCPay Server #7250 adds support for LNURL `withdrawRequest` (LUD-21), an unauthenticated endpoint. This allows external services to verify if a Bolt11 invoice, created via LNURL-pay, has been settled.

Wisp aims for mainstream adoption by enabling non-technical users to sign up and transact money without directly managing lightning wallets, liquidity, or private keys.

Wisp integrates Spark wallet for seamless Lightning onboarding, offering full zap and on-chain support with interoperable backups, allowing Primal seeds to work in Wisp.

UTXO's Nostr bot accepts Zaps for payment, showcasing a convergence of Bitcoin, open-source AI, and the Nostr protocol as a novel model for payment and interaction.