BITCOIN RAILS EPISODE #24: The History of Zero-Knowledge Proofs | with ZK “Godfather” Eli Ben Sasson In 2013, computer science professor @EliBenSasson presented his research on zero-knowledge proofs at a small Bitcoin conference outside of Standford University. The presentation immediately sparked interest from Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell—leading Eli into over a decade of sustained work advancing ZK-based solutions for blockchain scalability and privacy. Today, zero-knowledge proofs are widely considered some of the most powerful and promising cryptographic primitives for scaling—with their full potential for Bitcoin simmering just beneath the surface of active development. This episode shares Eli’s early discussions of ZKPs for scaling, the use of proofs in privacy-enhancing technologies like Zcash, the explosion of ZKPs for Layer 2s on Ethereum… and his recent return to exploring ZKPs for Bitcoin. As always, you can view this episode on YouTube or Spotify via the linktree in my bio—YouTube link in comments as well. This episode is powered by Best In Slot—the leading API for Ordinals and BRC20 data aggregation and indexing. TIMESTAMPS: 00:51 Eli Ben-Sasson: Godfather of ZKPs 02:15 Revealing Proof Research to Bitcoiners 04:15 Meeting Greg Maxwell; Mike Hearn 06:10 ZCash: Bringing ZK Based Privacy for Crypto 07:05 SNARKs and STARKs Explained 08:10 Would Satoshi Approve of Bitcoin STARKs? 11:41 ZCash Privacy Versus Monero 13:45 When did the ZKP era begin on Ethereum? 16:34 What’s different about ZK STARKs? 18:40 Vitalik and STARKs on Ethereum with Starkware 21:10 Academics finally appreciating STARKs 23:18 Healthy competition in the ZK industry 24:20 What is Starknet? 25:50 What is an L2, in Eli’s view? 27:20 Focustree, an app on Starknet 30:00 How Eli arrived at Bitcoin Season 2 34:45 When did ZK look realistic for Bitcoin? 36:55 Eli first heard about OP_CAT 39:30 Why Lightning isn’t good enough 40:30 When did Starkware start focusing on OP_CAT? 44:20 Runes bridge to Starknet! 46:00 Expanding Starknet staking to BTC 48:20 Why is OP_CAT “barely enough” for Bitcoin L2s? 51:00 The real reason people oppose OP_CAT, per Eli 53:00 The risks of *not* changing Bitcoin 55:35 The weakness of Bitcoin’s lack of governance 01:00:15 We will need to softfork for quantum!

"Banks issue dollars; non-banks issue claims to dollars." This difference explains why many #stablecoin issuers are seeking bank charters in the U.S. 🚨But be careful, bc not all banks are actually banks. It's critical to look at the statutory powers of the particular institution, even if "bank" is in the institution's name. U.S. federal law generally distinguishes banks from non-banks by one determining characteristic: whether the corporation is authorized by law to receive U.S. dollar deposits (i.e., banks can, but trust companies and other non-banks cannot). More in this handy chart below (from a soon-to-be-published #stablecoin paper). Among crypto-native companies in operation, only two (@krakenfx Bank & @custodiabank) are authorized by statute to receive U.S. dollar deposits. Depository institutions issue dollars; non-depository institutions issue claims to dollars.💡

Why is PODCONF Trying to break Bitcoin?

2019: Planetary Science PhD student 2024: Bitcoin Astrologer

ok how about it's a soft fork that's only CTV and CSFS

3/ To make testing easy, we've built a signet faucet and test store. No need to hunt for signet sats or places to spend them!

1/ Introducing a brand new offering for Bitcoiners: Asset Runes. Bitcoin-native assets giving you 1:1 exposure to real tokens, starting with USDC, and soon expanding to more tokens, NFTs, and RWAs. Minted natively on Bitcoin, redeemable 1:1 on Starknet, with full reserves 🧵

GM everyone! Our community has voted, and though we still love pizza, we are now TacoDAO! We're looking forward to throwing a #GlobalTacoParty with all of you on Cinco de Mayo! 🌎🌮🥳 Party list in replies, check for one near you! 👇

🚨The other shoe drops in the case of Milady vs. Milady 🚨 new lawsuit by Sprite et. al against Charlotte Fang, in the venerable DE Court of Chancery (most prestigious corporate law court in the world)! content.wrappr.wtf/ipfs/QmXH… h/t (@kali__gg )

At @TheBitcoinConf and prepared to launch tomorrow. No black 📦 here just an accountable observable federation built for the long term. Here's how we chose our validators ☑️⏬

If you're a #Bitcoin developer with a background in systems programming and familiar with C++ and Rust, slide into my DM's. I'm hiring. FT employees must relocate to Miami.

The arc of the moral universe doesn't bend towards justice on its own. Join the Open Source Justice Movement and help us build dispute resolution systems for everyone. opensourcejustice.org/manife…

We're hiring our first reporter for @blockspace! We're focusing on Bitcoin-related equities, so the ideal candidate is... - based in European time zone or similar - has experience in news journalism - familiar with equities, SEC filings, etc - can work in a fast paced news environment Apply or send link around below

its time to cook labitbu 👹

DONALD TRUMP’S SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY IS IN ADVANCED TALKS TO BUY BAKKT, A CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING VENUE OWNED BY INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE- FT - RTRS

THIS SATURDAY. 10 AM EST. JOIN @rot13maxi @ponzini @cbspears 👇👇👇 nitter.app/i/spaces/1BRJjmZOErLGw

Labubu Assets > Bitcoin Stamps

Big hugs from @ponzini and thx to @blu3dao @F3ST_IVAL @CryptoBabesClub @_HerDAO @BoysClubCrypto for creating a vibrant #WomeninWeb3 community

As someone who works in crypto, but has a background in both reinsurance and tradfi, I have some views here. To give a little background, I've been involved in the tokenization of assets at scale, I've traded all kinds of fixed income, and I've managed one of the largest ILS portfolios in the world. I'm not speaking as a casual here. Some thoughts: 1 - You do not get to magically say blockchain lowers risk and wave your hand at it, then move on. In many cases, tokenizing assets and putting them on a blockchain is adding a layer of risk (you've added another ledger and a 24/7 system with different behavior on top of your already existing ledger, often on a different timescale), not removing it. Yes, there are theoretical benefits to using a blockchain, such as transparency of the token, tracking, and so on... but many of the alleged benefits (such as eliminating counterparty credit risk) have not even been competently built on-chain yet for abstracted or generalized use cases, much less in a way that also would eliminate it in the underlying market. In short, the majority of tokenized real assets probably add risk, not reduce it, in the current environment. 2 - One of the reasons I am so deeply skeptical of the tokenization of assets by crypto natives is that to understand how to tokenize an asset, especially off-the-run assets that already have not gained significant real-world adoption, you need to have a deep understanding of the asset itself. Raising parametric insurance contracts as an example here with absolutely zero discussion of the core problems with the parametric insurance contract market (namely basis risk and measurement disputes) that have nothing to do with a blockchain is just absolutely wild. This is like saying the core problem with horse adoption is lack of awareness or distribution of horses and completely ignoring the existence of the automobile. I want to be clear as someone who has worked in these markets: parametric insurance and private debt markets are deep expert markets with real-world structure problems that blockchains do not solve. Tokenizing and distributing markets that are complex and explode like live grenades in the hands of even sophisticated investors, but doing it retail? That is nothing more than a deeply cynical and morally repugnant cash-grab. Again, throwing these out casually is precisely the problem; this is classic hype merchant behavior of dispensing magic keywords without any understanding of the underlying structure, and indicative of the sort of thing that should cause you to throw out an entire pitch from someone when you see it. 3 - You do not disintermediate many of the things referenced (IBs, trustees, servicers, lawyers, auditors, etc.) by tokenizing assets. Unless the asset is a natively crypto asset, which is demonstrably not the case if we are tokenizing real assets, you still need all those things back out in the real world. Yes, for purely crypto applications or clever designs for some specific real-world use cases, it's possible to have some degree of "code is law" type implementation, though man, I really do not think people understand both the implications of that or how to do that in an effective manner. @lex_node writes about this often and far more effectively than I could, so let me just shill his handle here as someone who has opinions so informed on this topic it's probably unhealthy. 4 - You also don't get to magically say all this data exists on blockchains. It's often the collection of the data itself that is the problem. Slipping in references about sensors, drones, and wearables as though we are going to live in a 24/7 complete and total surveillance state to get slightly better settlement on a blockchain is again, deeply cynical (that, or the author genuinely believes in a more authoritarian dystopia than anything which currently exists on the planet). How, precisely, are we going to have real-time data about many private credit agreements? Do we think businesses are going to publicly put every single shred of their data on-chain to be analyzed? Track their employees in real time like they are automatons and put it all on-chain? Again, this is just confounding and unprofessional stuff. I suppose I simply find it profoundly disappointing and sad that this is the state of the pitch for real assets on chain. If an intern had handed me something like this when I ran a trading desk, I'd have sent them home for the summer and told them they weren't getting a job. This is so far below replacement level in terms of how to think about or build fundamental structures on chain that I would have to write a post 20x as long just to explain how broken some of this thinking is, and how fundamentally we have to re-work some of these assumptions to get to a place where we can truly get useful things on-chain in a way that will improve the lives of people in the real world.

BREAKING: GARY GENSLER CONFIRMS THAT THE PURCHASE OF A @Pokemon CARD DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SECURITY TRANSACTION, BUT STUMBLES WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE PURCHASE OF A TOKENIZED @Pokemon CARD

❗️Team Visma | Lease a Bike reveal 2025 helmet prototype

Cara Ponzini will speak at Inscribing Vegas, the Official Ordinals Conference of Bitcoin 2025, on May 27 at Vū Vegas! @ponzini is the CEO of PolyBeam 🤫

Today, @paradigm commented on the @SECGov's proposed redefinition of “exchange" Through haphazard rulemaking, the SEC inappropriately attempts to bring crypto trading platforms, including DEXs, under its remit and regulate them as securities exchanges policy.paradigm.xyz/writing/…

Friendly reminder. Politicians are grifters. 🧡

Oregon had a halving schedule. In the early 1840s, 640 acres of prime farmland were granted to each couple who arrived via the Oregon Trail. One square mile. In 1850, this was decreased to 320 acres. In 1862, this was decreased to 160 acres. The earlier a new adopter made the journey, the better off they were. But of course, the earlier you went, the more dangerous and challenging the journey was. The earliest migrants attempted the journey before the Oregon Trail was navigable by covered wagon. In 1839, 18 men set out from Illinois with a flag emblazoned with their motto “Oregon or the Grave.” Half of these men made it to the fertile land of Oregon; half died on the journey. Each year after, more attempted the journey. Such was the promise of a new life, and ample farmland in Oregon. “The Great Migration of 1843” brought 1,000 new settlers via wagon train. Imagine how late those families felt. All the very best farmland was taken. Instead of 640 acres right next to the Willamette River, you might have to settle for an equally fertile plot one mile away! Of course, we can recognize that complaint as ridiculous. It’s obvious to us that anyone in the first few thousand settlers of Oregon was extremely early. And guess what… that’s effectively where we’re at with Bitcoin. Everyone who arrives at the Bitcoin thesis feels late. Everyone wishes they had stacked sats earlier. But it’s better to remember how many people are still behind us. Bitcoin isn’t a small region like Oregon. Bitcoin is for everyone - it is digital capital that could grow to be 50% of all the world’s asset value, according to Saylor. And yet, maybe 10M people on Earth understand Bitcoin as an important savings vehicle. That’s ~0.1% of the world. So if you’re arriving now, you’re in the first 0.2% of genuine adopters. That means 99.8% of the world is still behind you. And they’re on their way. You may not feel like you’re early to Oregon… but you are. Make the most of this opportunity and your descendants will know you as the legend who changed everything for your family.

9 days until the pixels reveal. Join us on January 9th. rabbit.tech/?utm_source=twit…

if you gaze long into the git blame, the git blame gazes also into you

On World Maternal Mental Health Day, we recognize that as many as 1 in 5 women experience some type of perinatal mood & anxiety disorder. It's crucial that mothers & other parents get the mental health support they need for them & their baby. #MaternalMHmatters #strongertogether

🚨Plebfi Giveaway!!🚨 We are giving away a $150 Cote Miami giftcard! COTE is America's first and only Michelin-starred Korean Steakhouse. There are only 3 locations in the world: Singapore, NYC and Miami. See the post below for details.

Four takeaways from our Bitcoin Scaling conference, OP_NEXT Here's our initial insights on what developers discussed at our scaling conference 🧵 subscribe below to read the full newsletter this morning! ✅ OP_CTV has near-universal support from developers @JeremyRubin's OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV) “hasn’t really changed much in the past 4 years,” as he said during his presentation, but despite a failed campaign towards activation the covenant opcode continues to gain explicit support from developers. Even @peterktodd said “I actually don’t think CAT is the most popular opcode, I would argue CTV is”. Covenants are one of the most preferred scaling solutions right now and CTV checks all the boxes for narrowly defined covenants with little to no downsides. @rusty_twit @Blockstream, @JBeddict of @FoundryServices, and Peter Todd all agree that concerns over CTV being used as a tool by entities which seek to control Bitcoin users are very misguided. ✅ Activation itself is probably more controversial than specific soft fork proposals Everyone has something negative to say about previous activations, particularly Segwit and Taproot. Also there was little-to-no agreement during the conference on what future healthy activation would look like. As @reardencode put it -- to have consensus we need consensus 💀. Somehow, someone is supposed to try to build consensus, but at the same time nobody should pick up the mantle to try  – a frustrating catch 22 ✅ OP_CAT is going to happen whether we softfork or not The wheels are already in motion to emulate it. Both through Bitcoin PIPEs (@nemothenoone) and the recently published (but absurdly impractical) Collider Script research (Poelstra, @Ethan_Heilman, Viktor & Avihu @StarkWareLtd), OP_CAT and some other covenant opcodes are possible today if you have time and money. TL;DR: we can use fancy math and computers to accomplish the same things CAT does without a soft fork. Are these methods practical? It probably depends. Our takeaway is that CAT may be so desirable to certain groups that the cost & impracticality may not matter. ✅ The role of developers is to propose softforks, but it’s controversial if they advocate for those forks “Developers are naturally in the driver’s seat because we have a dominant reference implementation.” - Rusty Russell. While Bitcoin Core developers may not drive soft forks, they can de facto veto them. Currently, most soft fork discussion continues to be localized mostly to developer-heavy circles with the recent exception of OP_CAT, which has crossed the chasm into widespread retail support due to the Taproot Wizards campaigning. Opinions diverge on whether developers should take an active role in promoting their ideas. Look no further than @JeremyRubin and CTV. CTV, while resoundingly popular today, received harsh pushback both on the proposal and arguably moreso on Jeremy himself, as Jeremy emphatically explained in his presentation. Ethan Hileman, OP_CAT coauthor, said during the conference that his “job is just to come up with proposals and educate on them,” indicating that he thinks it’s best for developers to stay out of soft fork campaigning (and Ethan largely has – most OP_CAT discussion we see are focused on the proposal, not Ethan and @Arminsdev, the coauthors of the BIP to reactivate the opcode).

2/2 TABConf is organized in an open-source manner. Content is not dictated by sponsorships or a central planner but by GitHub issue submissions, curated by those who want to be involved. Check out github.com/TABConf/6.tabconf… to submit an idea or comment on others.

As DAOs continue to evolve, and the study of their governance continues to expand in scope and complexity, it can be hard to identify a good starting point for initial exploration. That’s why we’re thrilled to publish our Overview on DAO Governance: daocollective.xyz/governance…

a second labitbu has hit the Ocean block

gm just swapping some @Starknet Asset Runes for $DOG. @dot_swap - ing right from the @xverse

Join us at BITCOIN is for EVERYONE 🎉 📅 Wed May 22, 2024 📍 Mcmenamins Kennedy School 🌏 Portland, OR 🎟️ bitcoinisforeveryone.com/tic… ⏰ $99 Early Bird 🔜 March 31 Celebrate #BitcoinPizzaDay, witness Bitcoin's real-world impact, & meet those shaping its future. Follow us for more!

We're excited to share a major milestone: Magnolia is now officially MSB registered and holds an NMLS ID.

Join Miami Bitcoin Developers for our monthly socratic seminar at 7pm tonight! Topics are found here: github.com/Bitcoin-Grove/mia… We'll have pizza thanks to @dka218 and drinks from @char_btc Please RSVP on meetup or reach out to help with headcount. 🙏 meetup.com/miami-bitdevs/eve…

🍴Play with your food 🌴

Being close friends with an epstein pedo island friend who had to leave his last job because of epstein pedo island exposure is not a good look for any crypto organisation. Just saying #ethtokyo

🧡 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY 🧡 Get your loved one 🎟️ Early Bird Tickets 🎟️ before the price goes up on March 31st bitcoinisforeveryone.com/tic…

sbf / caroline gonna be the hottest couples halloween costume of 2023

🚨PLEB ALERT🚨 CALLING ALL #BITCOIN PLEBS!📢 Plebi.fi is back baby! 💪 Date: May 16-17 b4 @TheBitcoinConf Where: The Lab in Wynnwood We bE HaCkInG oN: - #NOSTR 🦢 - #ORDINALS 🖼️ - #FEDIMINT ☀️ Learn more: pleb.fi/miami2023/ RSVP: forms.gle/1VPezfZrqM6UytiC9

As an organizer, these stories are everything. Hackathons spark careers, ignite lifelong passions, and its impact ripples far beyond the event itself.