One small step for the Blockstream app. One giant leap for the Bitcoin network.

https://blog.blockstream.com/jade-lightning-payments-are-here/

Pay a Lightning invoice...from cold storage.

Your Jade holds LBTC. The Blockstream app handles the swap to Lightning. You sign the transaction offline on your Jade. The invoice gets paid.

Forget hot wallet security holes. Get all the speed and all the security with Jade.

https://youtube.com/shorts/_w4hgpCdr4M

In Q1, Blockstream developed post-quantum solutions for Bitcoin and improved capabilities for Lightning. Blockstream Research deployed the first post-quantum-signed transactions on Liquid using Simplicity. Bitcoin users can now receive Lightning payments secured by Blockstream Jade cold storage. Blockstream's Q1 2026 Quarterly Update is live.

https://blog.blockstream.com/blockstream-quarterly-update-q1-2026/

Post-quantum research for Bitcoin is well underway at Blockstream Research. Get the full picture, and what we’ve been up to:

⚛️ http://blockstream.com/quantum

Core Lightning 26.04 "Negative Routing Fees" has shipped.

Splicing is out of experimental, the node runs leaner, and peer messages are now padded to resist traffic analysis. ⚡

Splicing lets you resize channels without closing them, cutting open/close overhead, freeing idle capital, and ending reliance on centralized liquidity providers. 26.04 also ships parallel pathfinding improvements, payer notes on xpay, and roughly 20% smaller binaries.

https://blog.blockstream.com/core-lightning-26-04-negative-routing-fees/

Calling all open-source developers, cryptographers and coding wizards:

Blockstream is hosting a Simplicity hackathon in Turin, Italy, at Blox Space on May 16-17. Prizes include $3k in BTC for the winning team, plus Jade Plus wallets for other top teams. It’s free to attend, and you’ll get the chance to build directly with Blockstream engineers.

Simplicity brings more expressive smart contracts to Bitcoin without sacrificing security, predictability, or auditability. Built to be resource-bounded and deterministic, it is designed for high-assurance financial applications without the fragility seen in other smart contract environments.

Apply now: http://liquid.net/bootcamp

Built for exchanges, custodians, and teams running mission-critical Bitcoin infrastructure. Blockstream Explorer API 26.03 is out.

Complete visibility into API usage patterns. Optimized performance for high-volume applications. Flexible security controls for enterprise workflows.

What's new: historical analytics, faster query response, customizable token expiration, and production-grade rate limiting across free and paid tiers.

Full release notes:

https://blog.blockstream.com/enhanced-analytics-and-infrastructure-improvements-for-the-blockstream-explorer-api/

As the Liquid Network’s technical provider, Blockstream is sharing an updated roadmap for the core development workstreams it leads.

0-conf payments, quantum readiness, BitVM bridge exploration, institutional custody, Simplicity-based DeFi infrastructure, and much more are in development.

Details. 👇

https://blog.blockstream.com/liquid-network-roadmap-0-conf-quantum-readiness-and-bitvm/

There is no concrete post-quantum signature scheme for Bitcoin today.

But over the last year Blockstream Research has been working on exactly this. Director Jonas Nick lays out the proposal: OP_CHECKSHRINCS, a hash-based signature opcode for post-quantum Bitcoin.

SHRINCS reaches up to 3 TPS on the compact path. 580-byte signatures from a dedicated signing device. A stateless fallback always available.

Already demonstrated on Liquid. The C++ implementation, Simplicity verifier, and draft spec are all on GitHub.

https://blog.blockstream.com/op_checkshrincs-a-hash-based-signature-opcode-for-post-quantum-bitcoin/

The results are in from the Blockstream Turin Simplicity Hackathon! 20 developers spent a weekend building real smart contracts on Simplicity covenant DEXs, inheritance tools, post-quantum wallets, and more.

First place goes to: PQ Liquid Wallet, taking home $3,000 in bitcoin: PQ Liquid Wallet is the first wallet to test Blockstream's research on protecting Bitcoin from future quantum computers.

Second and third place each take home a Blockstream Jade for every team member. Full breakdown of all six submissions on the blog.

https://blog.blockstream.com/simplicity-developers-show-off-at-the-turin-hackathon/

Core Lightning 26.06 "Quantum-Resistant Lightning Channel" has shipped.


Graceful shutdowns, precise send amounts, smarter payment retries, and enhanced payment privacy. Your Lightning node runs cleaner and your payments stay harder to observe. ⚡

The big architectural shift in this release is bwatch, a new block-watching plugin that fundamentally changes how CLN interacts with the Bitcoin blockchain. No more 30-second polling loops. Near-instant catch-ups on startup. Crash-resistant and built to scale.

Legacy pay is now deprecated. The xpay evolution is here.


42 days. 236 commits. 19 contributors including Sangbida Chaudhuri and Rusty Russell, who designed bwatch from the ground up.


Lightweight, customisable, spec-focused Lightning. That's what this community keeps building. ⚡


https://blog.blockstream.com/core-lightning-26-06-quantum-resistant-lightning-channel/?ref=blockstream-newsletter

When you run a Bitcoin node, you can prove the 21 million cap yourself. Every block. No trust required.

The Zcash Orchard bug, undetected for four years, is a reminder of what you give up when supply verifiability is traded for privacy.

The Liquid Network shows there is another way. Strong privacy with publicly verifiable supply.

https://blog.blockstream.com/what-the-zcash-orchard-bug-reveals-about-verifiable-supply/