- **Statechains & Mercury**: Discussion centered on a new Bitcoin-layer-2 construction called “statechains” (gist.github.com/AdamISZ/b462838cbc8cc06aae0c15610502e4da) that allows off-chain transfer of entire UTXOs while preserving atomicity; Mercury is an open-source implementation. Participants noted the limitation that coins must be of fixed denominations.

- **Pathcoin**: A follow-up blog post on “pathcoin” (a privacy-preserving multi-hop payment protocol) by waxwing was anticipated; nsh set a 3-month reminder to check for its release.

- **MinION DNA Sequencers**: Brief confusion between “minions” (underlings) and Oxford Nanopore’s MinION portable DNA sequencers (nanoporetech.com/products/minion) highlighted the device as a low-cost, open-pathway tool for decentralized genomics.

- **DIY fNIRS Brain-Imaging Hardware**: fltrz asked about the price and specs of an 80 dB dynamic-range, 312-channel ADC dev-kit for functional near-infrared spectroscopy; interest expressed in building an open-source version because low-cost audio-grade ADCs are hard to source.

- **General Tone**: Channel maintained its usual mix of cryptographic protocol design, open biotech hardware, and low-key DIY neurotech experimentation.