UPDATE ON THE FUTURE OF BOLTZ ๐Ÿ“ข Over the past couple of months, AI-assisted attackers have been targeting Boltz with increasing frequency, intensity and sophistication. Several of these attacks succeeded, but because Boltz is non-custodial, user funds were never at risk. The entirety of the risk was ours, and as a result of the losses incurred, on August 3rd we made the difficult decision to suspend the service to prevent further damage. While working on a plan to bring Boltz back over the past days, we had to accept one painful insight: as a bootstrapped five-person startup, we simply don't have the resources to withstand the current level of attacks in the long run. Today, we are happy to announce that a group of veteran Bitcoiners came forward to help, bringing the capital and engineering power the project needs. They have agreed to take over Boltz and continue the service. Work to find and fix the vulnerabilities is already under way, with the goal of bringing swaps back as soon as possible. As we want to give them the freedom to introduce themselves in their own time, we are not attaching any names today. All original founders of Boltz have stepped down from the company, effective immediately. None of us will have any formal or authoritative role with the Boltz project going forward, and any future open-source participation by us is strictly on a voluntary basis. We are grateful for the community's support all these years, for the patience and understanding of our integrators affected by the disruption of our service, and to everyone who reached out offering support over the past week. It was a hell of a ride, and we are proud of our contributions to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Godspeed to the new Boltz team as they navigate these perilous times. We know Boltz is in good hands. - Kilian, Michael & Karl

Replies (61)

Non-custodial solutions like Boltz embody self-ownership, as users retain control over their assets, echoing Epictetus' wisdom: "no one is free who is not master of himself."
Based Truth's avatar
Based Truth 4 days ago
Boltz under siege by AI attacks, how convenient for the narrative. Sounds like a Klaus Schwab wet dream, pretext to further centralize control.
AENEAS's avatar
AENEAS 4 days ago
Okay, comments people โ€” we all realize this means Boltz is dead now, and we're not going to use them in the future, right? Their canary went off and now their staff is mystery wiped. It doesn't take a genius ๐Ÿคฆ๐Ÿป
the whole concept of boltz existing at all is completely asinine. you don't want ANY architecture that allows for things to be completely shut off. boltz was solving a manufactured problem in an effort to pretend that lightning and liquid are viable technology.
I don't like centralized solutions and them stopping it with a flick of a switch ... not very convincing lets say to put your money in ... or one just accepts its like a bank server with full control
Itโ€™s been a great project to watch and use. You guys built something excellent. Hope you are all stepping down on good terms and have other interesting projects ahead. Thanks for what you built. Seems like a big sudden change, cest la vie I guess.
Kian's avatar
Kian 4 days ago
๐Ÿฆthe canary is dead! Thank you for your service ๐Ÿซก I hope these anon devs are trustworthy.
21_21_21's avatar
21_21_21 4 days ago
Look into drivechains, a interesting proposal to do just that
NostrDANus's avatar
NostrDANus 4 days ago
Interessting that the best posts getting reported and by whom...
REALMANTALK's avatar
REALMANTALK 4 days ago
100% so is boltz still useful now or we need to wait?
Was the new canary installed by the old or the new team? At this point I would only trust "old team" if it was signed by one of their known keys. Else ... what's the accountability of an anonymous team?
Warrant canaries are a legal work-around for gag-orders. If a court orders you to maintain silent about something, you can't warn your service's users about that but nobody can prevent you from publishing that you had not ordered to be silent about anything prior to the fact, so some companies put out such a document called a warrant canary. To not renew it means you would have to lie to renew it and a court can't compel you to lie. They can compel you to not remove the canary though, so ... it expiring is as much of a signal you might get if something shady is going on.
for privacy you're hosed but maybe it's non custodial enough that you don't need to trust them with your money
Appreciate the great service that you offered. The v2 API was especially slick. I can't help but be intrigued by: - Vague "AI-assisted attacks" - Unnamed new owners (who would normally want the previous founders around for a handover) - Clean legal split from the company in terms of authority/liability - The Warrant Canary (https://canary.boltz.exchange) โ€” last renewed 2026-08-05, signed by Michael's key, ~6 days after its 60-day window from the 2026-05-31 canary expired. Next renewal due early October, after all founders have left. Who signs it then, and with what key? I guess we need to find a decentralised way to do this moving forward. View quoted note โ†’
Space Cake's avatar
Space Cake 3 days ago
Could have been the new team with the old teams key or the new team under duress. It wasnโ€™t renewed within the 60 days and in that case it says we are to โ€˜assume the worstโ€™
This is what I mean when I say "Capital is eating software". Software as a tool to innovate and resist is under threat from only being possible if the developers have capital. Huge concerns here.
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