Learning-Bitcoin-from-the-Command-Line/TODO-23.md

Updates for v2.3 of LBTCftCL

V2.2 of LBTCftCL was drafted in the summer of 2021. The last major upgrade to the book came with the release of v0.20, but there is a smattering of content through 22.0. Bitcoin Core is now up to v23.0, and the course needs to be updated to best address these recent changes. What follows is a rough listing of updates that are likely to require changes to the course. They will all require investigation, and in some cases it might be determined that there's nothing to be done. Some of the main questions that will determine whether material should be included in the course are listed, as our ideas for where material might go in the course.

Legacy Updates

• Segwit
  • Segwit is now old enough that we should teach it as the default. That means that sections 3.1-4.5 should be rewritten to use Segwit as the default and 4.6 should be removed (with perhaps a bit of the information about the different types of addresses being preserved).
  • It's possible that the same should occur with 10.5, but it should first be reviewed to see if it's a meaningful building block in the scripting process (or not).
• Fees
  • There was some question of if mintxfee is still current, or if paytxfee should be used. I haven't seen any evidence of obsolence, but it'd be good to check this and make sure we're still on the best practices.
  • This is discussed in 4.1

23.0 Updates

See also #575 and of course the Bitcoin Core 23.0 release notes.

• Schnorr & Taproot
  • Obviously, the biggest update. We'll need to teach the basics of both and why they're exciting. The main question here is: what commands actually take advantage of Schnorr & Taproot, and how can we show this off.
  • If there's just a little bit of functionality right now, it can go into chapter 8, probably in two new sections: 8.3 & 8.4, on Schnorr and Taproot. If there's already a lot of functionality, it should go into its own chapter, and 8 (and everything beyond it) should be shifted back.
• Descriptor Wallets
  • Descriptor wallets are now the default. There's some unfortunate lack of integration with multisigs, but we should otherwise give them more attention. What can we do new about inputting and outputting descriptor wallets? Are there any other functions of note?
  • This will likely go in 3.5, though it's possible it go split into two chapters: Understanding the Descriptor and Understanding the Descriptor Wallet. See the 0.21 release notes at the bottom for everything about Descriptor Wallets. But note that we explicitly turn them off in 3.2, so any discussions explicitly about descriptor wallets will require creating a new wallet for that purpose
• Freezing Coins
  • This is an interesting new ability that allows you to prevent UTXOs from being automatically selected when transactions are created.
  • This would probably fit well into 4.5 as a final header-section.
• CJDNS Network
  • I'm not familiar with CJDNS, but it sounds like a privacy option that would fit in with Tor and i2p
  • If that's correctly, this would be a good 15.2, with the 15.0 chapter renamed "Using Other Privacy Options" or something like that
• RPC Changes
  • The following RPC commands have had changes to their output and any examples should be rerun. If they are part of a sequence of commands (e.g., building out a transaction), then the whole sequence should be rerun.
  • createmultisig,
  • addmultisigaddress,
  • listunspent,
  • getblockchaininfo
  • Updated RPCs may or may not exist in the text. The best way to find out is to search.

22.0 Updates

See release notes.

• New External Signer Commands
  • There are some new external signer commands: enumeratesigners and displayaddress. Are they relevant to what we're teaching? If so, should we add info on them.
  • See https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/22.x/doc/external-signer.md
  • Any updates would go in 7.3.
• RPC Changes
  • Again, these commands should be reoutput.
  • getpeerinfo,
  • gettxout,
  • getrawtransaction,
  • decoderawtransaction,
  • decodescript,
  • getnodeaddresses

0.21.0 Updates

See release notes.

• Signet
  • Signet is considered more controlled and reliable than testnet, and so should be used as our test network, along with an explanation of what it is and how it differs from other networks.
  • The setup and explanation of networks appears in 3.1. That should be changed, and with the change of the alias there, we should mostly be used Signet. Then the rest of the course can be searched for any references to testnet.
• RPC Changes
  • As usual, these may or may not be used, but if they are, outputs should be redone.
  • getnetworkinfo