Ian Edwards, a freelancer writer, has published a medium blog article collecting for us and showcasing Bitcoin’s future development outlook. We found the post quite interesting and wanted to offer a short summary (and also add a thing or two) for our readers who might be interested on what the original coin has to offer for 2018 and further. Developments have taken on a faster pace after SegWit finally got activated via a soft fork and now recently LN came out in a public beta. So let’s look at what we might expect:

Schnorr signatures

Schnorr signatures would replace the old digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) and would allow certain transaction types (‘one party wants to send a transaction funded by three accounts’) to be reduced in size. Additionally the new signatures would raise the privacy of multi-signature transactions. This update could be implemented as a soft-fork, but there is no certain date on the implementation.

Bulletproofs

‘Bulletproofs’ is a privacy focused development that masks the quantities of the transactions, but not the actual addressees. Bulletproofs are zero-knowledge proofs and offer a level of privacy that some of the most popular anon coins own. There is no exact date on the implementation yet, but Monero is already working on its implementation. An altcoin successfully implementing it could mean that the actual Bitcoin implementation will move faster (as seen with SW on Litecoin).

Sidechain Projects

Sidechains are subchains that enjoy the security model offered by the parent chain (since they are connected), but could own certain individual features like cheaper transactions or faster confirmation times. Currently Liquid Network, RSK and Drivechain are under development.

For an explanation on Liquid Network, RSK and Drivechain check out the original blog post.

Mimblewimble

This is a proposal for a Bitcoin like chain that offers better scalability and security, while also being ASIC resistant (for now) thanks to a new mining algorithm. It would also offer better privacy since the transaction amounts and private keys are concealed. A project name Grin is already working on the implementation, but they are planning to launch an own cryptocurrency. Implementing the finalized Mimblewimble technology as a sidechain would be possible, thus Bitcoin’s users would be able to enjoy all of its features without rewriting the original codebase.

Bonus: Lightning Charge Apps

As Lightning Network BETA made the debut on the Bitcoin network we beginning to see real applications being built on LN. We have reported previously on the second and third app from Blockstream, but the series of announcements are not over yet. These applications all help with the adoption of the digital asset as they connect content creators and developers, thus build adoption. Follow their announcements here.