Computing on Bitcoin #109
October 02, 2026 - Week 40
Welcome to a new edition of Computing on Bitcoin News! Here’s what’s worth catching up on this week.
A new article by Camilo Rivas examines using garbled circuits to compute SHA-512 on Bitcoin, building on BitVMX's model of off-chain program execution with on-chain challenges that Bitcoin Script can handle.
bitvmx.org/knowledge
🔗
Using Garbled Circuits To Compute SHA-512 On Bitcoin
Bitcoin Script, the language powering all Bitcoin transactions, has a limited set of opcodes. By design, the language is not Turing-complete and even some useful opcodes were disabled due to security concerns. Here is where BitVMX comes in.
Rootstock shared a video in which Sergio Lerner discusses BitVM, more decentralized bridges, and how RootstockLabs and Fairgate Labs are putting this into practice with BitVMX.
Bitcoin rollups are moving from theory to reality.
— Rootstock (@rootstock_io) September 28, 2026
@SDLerner on BitVM, more decentralized bridges, and how @RootstockLabs and @FairGateLabs are putting it into practice with BitVMX. pic.twitter.com/v6YQ0rbRp0
A new paper introduces Shielded Bitcoin, a privacy protocol for Bitcoin L1 using zero-knowledge proofs and PIPEs v2 without consensus changes, while discussing BitVM-style bridges as an alternative for Bitcoin-denominated value.
allocinit.xyz
🔗
Shielded Bitcoin
This paper introduces Shielded Bitcoin, a protocol for private transfer of Bitcoin directly on the Bitcoin L1, requiring no changes to Bitcoin consensus. Its design borrows from the architecture of Zcash and earlier shielded-note systems: value is held as encrypted notes, spends are marked by public nullifiers, and validity is established by zero-knowledge proofs.
A new blog post by Citrea announces the cBTC Earn Vault, highlighting cBTC being powered by BitVM and ZK cryptography and the Clementine bridge behind it.
blog.citrea.xyz
🔗
Announcing cBTC Earn Vault: First Trust-Minimized BTC Vault
We are expanding cBTC's utility with the launch of the cBTC Earn Vault. The cBTC Earn Vault enables Bitcoin holders to earn a competitive yield directly on their BTC without converting into stablecoins or secondary assets.
BitVM3: Efficient Bitcoin Bridges via Garbled Circuits, by Robin Linus and co-authors, will be presented at ACM CCS 2026, covering a garbled-circuit approach to more efficient Bitcoin bridges.
sigsac.org
🔗
Main Conference Schedule
BitVM3: Efficient Bitcoin Bridges via Garbled Circuits
Robin Linus Woll (Stanford University), Ioannis Alexopoulos (TU Wien), Lukas Aumayr (University of Edinburgh), Zeta Avarikioti (TU Wien), Matteo Maffei (TU Wien), David Tse (Stanford University)
That’s it for this edition of Computing on Bitcoin News. We’ll continue following the ideas, research, and developments pushing Bitcoin computation forward.
Until next time,
The Fairgate Team