WEDNESDAY, FEB18
1. Stacker goes non custodial, 2. Scripting transaction introspection, 3. Sanctions resistant money, 4. Mandatory age verification
Supported by Proto and Bitkey - a part of the Bitcoin ecosystem at Block, Inc.
1. invoice
Stacker News transitioned from custodial to non-custodial Lightning operations throughout 2024 after legal counsel warned of potential money transmission violations, as developer EK recently recalled. The platform now wraps invoices using techniques similar to LNPROXY, enabling payment forwarding without taking custody while routing every transaction through Lightning channels. EK stated their architecture ensures "we can always cancel" invoices since "we wrap all the invoices," maintaining control without custody. The team implemented optimistic payments with automatic background retries across multiple attached wallets, attempting to preserve custodial-level user experience despite non-custodial complexity. Stacker News introduced "credits" for users without Lightning wallets, allowing participation through internal accounting where 70% of zapped amounts reach receivers, 21% funds territory founders, and 9% supports daily rewards distributions. The approach addresses regulatory pressures following Phoenix and Wallet of Satoshi withdrawals from US markets and Samourai Wallet prosecutions. EK acknowledged ongoing challenges including liquidity management, explaining required Lightning knowledge from users, and coordinating encrypted wallet credentials across devices while maintaining the platform's core social tipping functionality.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X2. introspection
Bithoven developer ChrisCho-H outlined the language's approach to transaction introspection, explaining witness data access allows user declarations "with less restriction than Simplicity" while maintaining static analysis safety guarantees. ChrisCho-H demonstrated experimental introspection syntax using checksig verification against generator point G, computing signature components from transaction version, locktime, prevouts, and outputs data, noting "I'm still learning the introspection protocol" and suggesting cleaner implementation through dedicated syntax like introspect(tx_data). Developer ftw2100 characterized Bithoven's design as prioritizing "strong static analysis guarantees" over advanced introspection capabilities, representing an "expressiveness vs. analyzability trade-off" that deliberately limits covenant-style use cases. The exchange occurred on Delving Bitcoin forums following earlier January discussions involving developers Nuh and GaloisField2718. ChrisCho-H invited further collaboration highlighting ongoing development of introspection features within Bithoven's safety-first framework. The discussion reflects broader Bitcoin scripting language development tensions between enabling sophisticated smart contract functionality and maintaining verifiable security properties.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X3. resistant
Economist Joshua Hendrickson and Philosopher Craig Warmke argue in a new AIER working paper that U.S. attempts to censor bitcoin transactions involving sanctioned entities through mining-focused strategies are "unlikely to achieve their intended outcomes." The authors examine two enforcement approaches recently endorsed by former White House cybersecurity official Carole House: requiring U.S. miners to exclude blacklisted addresses from blocks they produce, and coordinating miners to reject entire blocks containing sanctioned transactions. While technically feasible, the first strategy proves "practically impotent" because non-compliant miners elsewhere need only 0.7% of global hashrate to settle transactions within a day. The second approach could theoretically succeed with majority hashrate but risks triggering defensive mining by BRICS nations and resource-rich adversaries, potentially rendering U.S. operations unprofitable. "The looming specter of an expensive, interminable hash-war of attrition may explain why no country has yet attempted such a measure," the authors write. They recommend the U.S. instead support domestic mining as a strategic asset rather than burden it with ineffective restrictions.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X4. mandatory
Discord is deploying mandatory age verification globally despite no legal requirement to do so, locking users estimated to be under 18 or those with insufficient data into restricted "teen accounts" unless they submit facial scans or government IDs through third-party vendors. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns the policy extends surveillance infrastructure beyond jurisdictions where age gates are legally mandated, forcing users to choose between pseudonymity and platform access. According to EFF, "no current technology is fully privacy-protective, universally accessible, and consistently accurate," noting facial age estimation fails disproportionately for people of color, trans individuals, and those with disabilities. Discord won EFF's 2025 "Breachies Award" after attackers compromised 70,000 users' identity documents through its customer support system, though the platform now routes verification through dedicated vendors and claims IDs are not retained. The move affects over 200 million monthly active users across gaming communities, open-source projects, and social groups, with EFF calling voluntary adoption by a platform with Discord's market power "unacceptable" and urging other services to reject age verification absent legal mandate.
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