Ready for Merge Ep. 14 👾

Meet Murch, a full-time Bitcoin protocol developer who co-founded his own Bitcoin development company called LocalHost Research.As part of his day job, Murch is one of six editors who oversee the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) process. He recently championed long-overdue changes to the BIP process. In my interview with Murch, we discussed his journey as a Bitcoin developer and his most recent work updating the BIP process through BIP-3. This interview was recorded on January 16, 2026.Timestamps: (2:38) Murch's contributions to Bitcoin(6:08) Murch's journey as a Bitcoin developer (14:18) The vision behind Local Host Research(17:33) What it takes to become a Bitcoin developer(21:02) What it takes to become a BIP editor(25:19) A summary of BIP-3 changes(30:46) The BIP process vs Bitcoin governance process(40:02) Ongoing BIP process challenges(54:03) How BIP-3 was activated(1:01:10) Rapid-fire questionsLinks: Murch's X profile (https://x.com/murchandamus)Bitcoin Optech (https://bitcoinops.org/)Local Host Research (https://lclhost.org/)BIP-3 (https://bips.dev/3/)Blockspace article about BIP-3 (https://x.com/blockspace/status/2011821673184375239)BTC Before Light issue about BIP-3 (https://christinedkim.substack.com/p/issue-17)Chaincode BOSS program (https://bosschallenge.xyz/)BIP-110 (https://bip110.org/) Get full access to Christine D. Kim at christinedkim.substack.com/subscribe