Computing on Bitcoin #108
September 25, 2026 - Week 39
Welcome to a new edition of Computing on Bitcoin News, here’s what’s worth catching up on this week.
Zest Protocol launched a mainnet demo of Bitcoin Collateral Vaults, allowing native BTC to remain self-custodial on Bitcoin while borrowing USDC on Ethereum, with BitVM proof verification designed to reduce trust assumptions.
zestprotocol.com/blog
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Bitcoin Collateral Vaults mainnet demo is live
Bitcoin holders can now deposit native BTC into a Bitcoin Collateral Vault on Bitcoin L1 and borrow real USDC against it on Ethereum. The demo runs on mainnet with a capped position size per wallet, so the community can use the real system ahead of production launch.
A new interview with Pogun CEO Omer Husain discusses its bilateral Bitcoin credit market and the use of BitVM to support native Bitcoin collateral.
A Mortgage for Your Bitcoin: Bilateral Credit, BitVM & Collateral | Omer Husain, Pogun
youtube.com/@TheBlockopedia
Why is borrowing against your Bitcoin still so much harder than taking out a mortgage?
In this episode, we sit down with Omer Husain, Co-Founder & CEO at Pogun, for a deep conversation recorded at Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong.
A new interview explores PIPEs, a witness-encryption framework for enabling covenant-like functionality on Bitcoin without a soft fork, comparing its approach with BitVM and potential privacy applications.
PIPEs, Witness Encryption & the Future of Privacy on Bitcoin | MISHA KOMAROV & CLARA SHIKHELMAN
youtube.com/@BitcoinRails
Isabel Foxen Duke sits down with [[alloc] init] co-founder Misha Komarov and Head of Protocol Research Clara Shikhelman to examine PIPEs, a cryptographic framework that utilizes witness encryption—a primitive long dismissed as purely theoretical—to unlock advanced Bitcoin programming without a soft fork.
That’s it for this edition of Computing on Bitcoin News. We’ll be back with more updates, research, and conversations from across the ecosystem.
Until next time,
The Fairgate Team