A group of Bitcoin developers from different teams have come together to make a significant breakthrough on the Bitcoin blockchain. They have found a way to add a type of programming called “covenants” that could bring about new wallet and vault features, as well as more efficient layer-2 protocols. This breakthrough does not require any changes to Bitcoin’s main code, which is usually a complex process that requires consensus among users for major upgrades.
The announcement of this breakthrough was made in a research paper titled “ColliderScript: Covenants in Bitcoin via 160-bit hash collisions.” This development is crucial as Bitcoin continues to attract developers who are looking to enhance its programmability and add more network layers. The aim is to create more applications on the network and provide faster and cheaper transaction options, catching up to what Ethereum has achieved in terms of functionality while maintaining Bitcoin’s high level of security.
The team behind this breakthrough is led by Ethan Heilman, who has also been involved in proposing a technique called OP_CAT, aimed at increasing Bitcoin’s programmability. Other contributors to the research paper include Victor Kobolov and Avihu Levy from StarkWare, as well as Andrew Poelstra from Blockstream.
StarkWare has shared the research paper, highlighting that implementing covenants on Bitcoin was previously thought to require a soft fork with additional opcodes. However, the team’s findings show that covenants could be feasible on Bitcoin without the need for a soft fork. While the current solution is computationally intensive, there is potential for optimization in the future.
Bitcoin developer Robin Linus, known for the BitVM project, expressed that while the current implementation may not be practical due to high costs, the idea behind it is innovative. Linus hopes that further optimizations can be made to make this breakthrough more practical for real-world application.
Overall, this collaboration between Bitcoin developers, StarkWare, and Blockstream marks a significant step forward in enhancing the functionality and programmability of the Bitcoin blockchain without the need for major code changes. The potential for new wallet features, vault options, and more efficient protocols could open up a world of possibilities for Bitcoin users and developers alike.