OP_CAT proponents are attempting to meme their own proposal into existence as the ongoing debate surrounding covenants continues.
“BIP-420 enables covenants on bitcoin, allowing for smart contracts, secure bridges, on-chain trading, zk proof verification and more,” OP_CAT advocate and co-founder of Taproot Wizards Udi Wertheimer posted late Monday. However, “BIP-420” is not an official Bitcoin Improvement Proposal and currently just represents a draft proposal for OP_CAT, updating a prior version.
Generally speaking, covenants on Bitcoin are advanced scripting features that allow for specific conditions on how bitcoins can be spent in future transactions. They could enable use cases, including the creation of secure “vaults” that allow reversible transactions, automated recurring payments, time-locked transfers for scenarios like inheritance, and complex financial instruments such as escrows and bonds.
OP_CAT was originally included as one of the first opcodes in Bitcoin. However, pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto disabled it alongside several other opcodes in 2010 due to concerns surrounding the potential for creating scripts that could lead to vulnerabilities.
An opcode refers to a command used in the scripting language that makes up part of the Bitcoin protocol. Bitcoin scripts are made up of sequences of opcodes, each of which performs a specific operation.
The proposal, authored by Ethan Heilman and Armin Sabouri, seeks to reintroduce OP_CAT to Bitcoin via a backward-compatible soft fork by “redefining the opcode OP_SUCCESS126.”
This is the same opcode value used by the original OP_CAT, designed to remove any potential confusion by not using a different opcode value. The proposal focuses solely on the reintroduction of the opcode without altering other aspects of the script’s operational limits.
According to the proposal, the OP_CAT opcode would simplify and expand Bitcoin’s functionalities, including making decentralized protocols more practical and supporting advanced multi-sig setups. Essentially, OP_CAT would significantly increase the power and flexibility of Bitcoin scripting, making it easier to develop more sophisticated applications directly on the Bitcoin blockchain, the authors argue.
However, the likelihood of any such OP_CAT soft fork is contingent on a combination of technical, security and community consensus considerations. Without broad agreement and a clear demonstration of its safety and utility, OP_CAT’s implementation remains uncertain.