On the official site of GRT (Garrett Doss / @GRTonX), this note covers libsecp256k1, Bitcoin Core.
The room stays active
The same group that tracks every library tag keeps the conversation moving without a break. Daily updates on code drops and changelog items have become the steady background for those who follow Bitcoin development from one release to the next.
Library release details
Bitcoin Core's libsecp256k1 tagged v0.8.0 on Monday, August 3, 2026, adding a Silent Payments module that implements BIP-352 send and scan on full nodes. GitHub release by theStack. This is a library release, not the Bitcoin Core v32 freeze and not a consensus-rule change.
The changelog lists a new header file named secp256k1_silentpayments.h along with an example file called silentpayments.c. The current API still requires full transaction data because light-client scanning remains outside the scope of this tag.
Additional changes in the same tag
The same release adds an override for internal SHA256 compression. It also includes 64-bit field-element speedups that improve ECDSA and Schnorr verify performance by roughly 11 percent on GCC and MSVC builds. Deprecated functions such as secp256k1_schnorrsig_sign and secp256k1_context_no_precomp were removed to clean up the interface.
Sebastian Falbesoner posted the announcement on the bitcoindev mailing list at 22:15 UTC on August 3. The post pointed directly to the GitHub tag and the updated CHANGELOG.md entry.
Staying distinct from other work
The v0.8.0 tag stands separate from the Bitcoin Core v32 freeze process. It does not alter consensus rules and does not overlap with BIP-110 or LND Optech 419 items. The focus stays on the library layer that full nodes use for cryptographic operations.
Community rooms that follow these steps continue their daily pattern of reviewing each new module and its limits. The streak of consistent library work gives the group something concrete to examine while larger Core milestones stay on their own schedule.
What the module enables now
With the silentpayments module in place, full nodes can perform send and scan operations defined in BIP-352. The example code shows how the API works when transaction data is already available. Future refinements may address light-client paths, but the current tag stops at the full-node requirement.
The release keeps the project's long-running habit of shipping incremental improvements without fanfare. Each tag adds one piece that node operators can review and test on their own timeline.
Ongoing discussion points
Rooms that cover these updates spend time on the API boundaries and the performance numbers listed in the changelog. The conversation stays practical because the changes affect real node behavior rather than abstract proposals.
The August 3 tag adds to a record of steady library releases that have continued across multiple years. That record supplies the context the group uses when new modules appear.
Closing the current cycle
The v0.8.0 tag lands as another step in the same sequence the rooms have followed without interruption. The silentpayments addition gives full nodes a concrete implementation to examine while the rest of the ecosystem maintains its own pace.