Computing on Bitcoin #98
July 17, 2026 - Week 29
Welcome to a new edition of Computing on Bitcoin News!
Here’s a quick roundup of the latest research, discussions, and technical developments across the Bitcoin ecosystem
A new article explores the potential implications of the proposed BIP 110 soft fork, discussing possible chain split scenarios, institutional considerations, and how the proposal could temporarily affect Bitcoin applications such as BitVM.
seekingalpha.com
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A Concerning Development For Bitcoin: Extended Chain Split
Bitcoin is downgraded from Strong Buy to Buy due to near-term uncertainty from the looming BIP 110 soft fork.
BIP 110 could potentially cause chain splits, operational disruptions, and institutional hesitation, despite low miner support.
Even if BIP 110 fails or succeeds, BTC’s long-term monetary thesis and issuance schedule remain intact, with the current bear market likely near its end.
Benedikt Bünz discusses the role of zero-knowledge proofs in Bitcoin, noting BitVM as one of the few practical Bitcoin applications using ZKPs today, while exploring how post-quantum cryptography could drive broader adoption of these techniques.
The Magic of Zero-Knowledge Proofs | BENEDIKT BÜNZ
youtube.com/@BitcoinRails
Most of the world’s ZKP research has circled around Ethereum and other ecosystems, where significant resources have been dedicated to advancing these systems, particularly for scaling and privacy applications.
Samson Mow shared his perspective on Bitcoin Layer 2 tradeoffs, arguing that privacy, liquidity, and economically viable exits are more important than unilateral exits, while highlighting Liquid's planned BitVM-style 1-of-n bridge as a future improvement.
Lately there's been a lot of discussion around L2s like Liquid, Ark, and Spark, and the deciding factor for preference seems to have become unilateral exit: the ability to exit to the mainchain on your own initiative, even if the operator is malicious, censoring you, or has… https://t.co/xN5r6GbQSL
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) July 12, 2026
TecNeural published an overview comparing BitVM with traditional Bitcoin smart contract development, highlighting BitVM’s potential for advanced Bitcoin programmability, trust-minimized applications, and enterprise infrastructure.
tecneural.com/blog
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BitVM vs Traditional Bitcoin Smart Contract Development: Which Is Right for Your Next Bitcoin Project?
If your objective is to build advanced applications on Bitcoin, reduce development complexity, accelerate delivery, and leverage the latest innovations in Bitcoin programmability, TecNeural's BitVM development services provide the ideal foundation.
A new study analyzing three years of revealed Taproot script-path spends found that over 99% of revealed script bytes were used for data storage, while BitVM-like scripts accounted for only 0.015%, providing an overview of how Taproot scripts have been used since 2023.
New study: 3 years of revealed Taproot scripts on-chain
— Simple Steve 🌌 (@SteveSimple) July 10, 2026
12.4% of bytes in the Bitcoin blockchain have been revealed Taproot spending scripts since July 2023
Over 99% of the bytes in those scripts were data storage via the dead-code OP_IF method
Explanation and GitHub link:… pic.twitter.com/B7DWLODIIX
Thanks for reading this edition of Computing on Bitcoin News.
We look forward to bringing you more updates from the builders and researchers shaping Bitcoin's future.
Until next week!
The Fairgate Team