Ready for Merge Ep. 19 👾

Summary:In this bi-weekly brief, Christine D. Kim breaks down the latest developments in Bitcoin and Ethereum protocol development. She covers the upcoming Bitcoin Core v31 release and the growing debate around post-quantum cryptography. She also covers Ethereum developers’ discussions around the FRAME proposal and upgrade scoping for Hegota and beyond.This episode was recorded on March 4, 2026. Timestamps: (2:03) Bitcoin Core v31 feature freeze(3:35) Cluster Mempool status update(8:07) Bitcoin’s post-quantum roadmap(20:11) Ethereum’s post-quantum roadmap(23:39) The debate about FRAME(28:51) Next week’s showLinks: - BTC Before Light Issue #29 (https://christinedkim.substack.com/p/btc-before-light-issue-29) - BTC Before Light Issue #28 (https://christinedkim.substack.com/p/btc-before-light-issue-28) - The limitations of cryptographic agility in Bitcoin (https://groups.google.com/g/bitcoindev/c/O6l3GUvyO7A) - Introducing strawmap, a strawman roadmap by EF Protocol (https://x.com/drakefjustin/status/2026755969540108659) Song Credits:Special thanks to Calios for the music featured in this episode. You can listen to the full track, “Our Lives,” and other songs by Calios on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6qs62M8pLHGZuttTwgP6JK. Get full access to Christine D. Kim at christinedkim.substack.com/subscribe