News96: add news, releases/RCs, and some notable commits

Author: harding

_posts/en/newsletters/2020-05-06-newsletter.md

@@ -7,20 +7,43 @@ type: newsletter
 layout: newsletter
 lang: en
 ---
-This week's newsletter FIXME:harding
+This week's newsletter links to a discussion about using enhanced QR
+codes for communicating large transactions, includes a field report from
+Suredbits about building a high-availability LN node, and briefly
+summarizes several recently transcribed talks and conversations.  Also
+included are our regular sections with releases, release candidates, and
+notable code changes from popular Bitcoin infrastructure software.
 
 ## Action items
 
-FIXME:harding
+{:.center style="font-size: 1.5em"}
+<!-- $$\frac{50}{2^{\lfloor height/210000 \rfloor}}$$ -->
+![Happy halving!](/img/posts/2020-05-halving.png)
 
 ## News
 
-FIXME:harding
+- **QR codes for large transactions:** QR codes can practically contain
+  up to about 3 kilobytes of data, which is enough to accommodate
+  typical user transactions but far too small to contain the largest
+  transactions users can send normally (about 400 kilobytes).  Riccardo
+  Casatta and Christopher Allen each posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing
+  list ([1][casatta qr], [2][allen qr]) a request for discussion
+  hopefully leading to standardization of a method for visual
+  communication of [Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions][topic psbt]
+  (PSBTs) and other potentially large data blobs related to Bitcoin
+  wallet interaction.  See the [previous discussion][qr old] in the
+  Specter DIY repository and [continue the discussion][qr new] in the
+  Airgapped Signing repository.
+
 
 ## Field report: running a Lightning node in an enterprise environment
 
 {% include articles/suredbits-enterprise-ln.md %}
 
+## Recently transcribed talks and conversations
+
+FIXME:michaelfolkson
+
 ## Releases and release candidates
 
 FIXME:harding update to latest versions Tuesday afternoon
@@ -29,15 +52,25 @@ FIXME:harding update to latest versions Tuesday afternoon
 projects.  Please consider upgrading to new releases or helping to test
 release candidates.*
 
+- [C-Lightning 0.8.2][c-lightning 0.8.2] is a new version release
+  that adds support for opening channels of any size (using the
+  `--large-channels` configuration parameter), provides a keysend plugin
+  for receiving [spontaneous payments][topic spontaneous payments], and
+  contains several other new features and bug fixes. Additionally, both
+  novice and experienced users are encouraged to read the project's new
+  [FAQ][cl faq].
+
+- [LND 0.10.0-beta][lnd 0.10.0-beta] is a major version release that
+  adds support for sending [multipath payments][topic multipath
+  payments], funding channels using an external wallet via [Partially
+  Signed Bitcoin Transactions][topic psbt] (PSBTs), the ability to create
+  invoices larger than 0.043 BTC, and several other new features and bug
+  fixes.  Additionally, users may wish to read the new [Operational
+  Safety documentation][lnd op safety].
+
 - [Bitcoin Core 0.20.0rc1][bitcoin core 0.20.0] is a release candidate
   for the next major version of Bitcoin Core.
 
-- [LND 0.10.0-beta.rc5][lnd 0.10.0-beta] allows testing the next major
-  version of LND.
-
-- [C-Lightning 0.8.2-rc2][c-lightning 0.8.2] is the newest release
-  candidate for the next version of C-Lightning.
-
 ## Notable code and documentation changes
 
 *Notable changes this week in [Bitcoin Core][bitcoin core repo],
@@ -51,8 +84,6 @@ development branch and so those changes will likely not be released
 until version 0.21, about six months after the release of the upcoming
 version 0.20.*
 
-FIXME:harding
-
 - [Bitcoin Core #16528][] allows the `createwallet` RPC to create a
   wallet that uses [output script descriptors][topic descriptors] to
   derive just the particular scriptPubKeys that the wallet uses to
@@ -78,8 +109,65 @@ FIXME:harding
     option will give the new features six months to mature before
     their expected release.
 
+- [Bitcoin Core #18038][] P2P: Mempool tracks locally submitted
+  transactions to improve wallet privacy FIXME:bitschmidty
+
+- [BIPs #893][] makes several changes to the [BIP340][] specification of
+  [schnorr][topic schnorr signatures] pubkeys and signatures, with
+  related changes also being made to the [BIP341][] specification of
+  [taproot][topic taproot].  The major changes include:
+
+    - *Alternative x-only pubkey tiebreaker:* this changes which variant
+      of a public key to use when only the key’s x-coordinate is known,
+      as previously discussed (see [Newsletter #83][news83 alt
+      tiebreaker]).
+
+    - *Updated nonce generation recommendadions:* the suggested method
+      to use for generating a signature nonce has been updated to
+      prevent implementation-specific vulnerabilities (see previous
+      discussion in Newsletters [#83][news83 precomputed] and
+      [#91][news91 power analysis]).
+
+    - *Updated tagged hashes:* the tag prefixed to hash function input
+      for schnorr signatures has been updated to deliberately break
+      compatibility with the old draft specification.  Otherwise
+      libraries written for the old code might sometimes generate
+      signatures valid under the new code, and sometimes might not,
+      leading to confusion.  This was also previously mentioned in
+      [Newsletter #83][news83 alt tiebreaker].
+
+- [BIPs #903][] simplifies the [BIP322][] specification of [generic
+  signed messages][topic generic signmessage] as previously proposed
+  (see [Newsletter #91][news91 bip322 update]), the change mainly
+  removes details that allowed signing the same message for multiple
+  scripts (addresses) in the same proof.
+
+- [BIPs #900][] updates the [BIP325][] specification of [signet][topic
+  signet] so that all signets use the same hardcoded genesis block
+  (block 0) but independent signets can be differentiated by their
+  [network magic][] (message start bytes).  In the updated protocol, the
+  message start bytes are the first four bytes of a hash digest of the
+  network's challenge script (the script used to determine whether a
+  block has a valid signature).  The change was [motivated][dorier
+  signet] by a desire to simplify the development of applications that
+  want to use multiple signets but which need to call libraries that
+  hardcode the genesis blocks for the networks they support.
+
 {% include references.md %}
-{% include linkers/issues.md issues="16528" %}
+{% include linkers/issues.md issues="16528,18038,893,903,900" %}
 [bitcoin core 0.20.0]: https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.20.0
-[lnd 0.10.0-beta]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/releases/tag/v0.10.0-beta.rc5
-[c-lightning 0.8.2]: https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning/releases/tag/v0.8.2rc2
+[lnd 0.10.0-beta]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/releases/tag/v0.10.0-beta
+[c-lightning 0.8.2]: https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning/releases/tag/v0.8.2
+[news83 alttiebreaker]: /en/newsletters/2020/02/05/#alternative-x-only-pubkey-tiebreaker
+[dorier signet]: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/16411#issuecomment-577999888
+[cl faq]: https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning/blob/master/doc/FAQ.md
+[news91 bip322 update]: /en/newsletters/2020/04/01/#proposed-update-to-bip322-generic-signmessage
+[casatta qr]: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2020-April/017794.html
+[allen qr]: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2020-April/017795.html
+[qr old]: https://github.com/cryptoadvance/specter-diy/issues/57
+[qr new]: https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/AirgappedSigning/issues/4
+[lnd op safety]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/blob/master/docs/safety.md
+[news83 alt tiebreaker]: /en/newsletters/2020/02/05/#alternative-x-only-pubkey-tiebreaker
+[news83 precomputed]: /en/newsletters/2020/02/05/#safety-concerns-related-to-precomputed-public-keys-used-with-schnorr-signatures
+[news91 power analysis]: /en/newsletters/2020/04/01/#mitigating-differential-power-analysis-in-schnorr-signatures
+[network magic]: https://btcinformation.org/en/glossary/start-string