How does OP_CAT enable covenants anyway? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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How does OP_CAT enable covenants anyway?blog.yonson.dev/log/2024-02-vol3/

12.1k sats \ 12 comments \ @yonson 26 Feb bitcoin

I went on a journey to wrap my head around how something as simple sounding as OP_CAT can enabled covenants and more complicated offchain contracts. Like I mention in the post, Andrew Poelstra is definitely the guy to listen to for the clearest descriptions of this, but maybe your mind is wired like mine and this re-wording is helpful. Also happy to hear if I misinterpreted anything!

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456 sats \ 3 replies \ @benthecarman 26 Feb freebie

Can we just do CTV

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nerd2ninja 27 Feb

Ayy LNHANCE right? That's another person who has socially flagged in support! Good to know

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @yonson OP 27 Feb

I dunno enough about the covenant stuff to have a strong take, was just curious how this was even possible. Maybe the lesson so far is that if support for covenants is not purposefully added, it will probably happen on accident at some point.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 27 Feb

probably happen on accident at some point

That is probably why some people are on the fence about adding anything to Bitcoin. Unexpected side affects are lurking at every corner. Good you did a deep dive yourself. Without it, you can only trust the people you trust to have an opinion about what to add or not.

87 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 26 Feb

great blog, thanks for sharing!

486 sats \ 0 replies \ @yonson OP 26 Feb

Thanks!

126 sats \ 0 replies \ @Tef 26 Feb

but maybe your mind is wired like mine and this re-wording is helpful.

Yep! It’s helpful. For sure.

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @endothermicdev 26 Feb

Great write up! Thanks for breaking down this mousetrap further.

Andrew is great at walking through really complex things in simple terms. But with that said, I had to re-read that post like five times and let it sink in over a day before it started to click.

I can relate to this.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @yonson OP 27 Feb

That post broke my mind for a little bit.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury 27 Feb

Man your blog is awesome! Glad you posted this :)

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 27 Feb

The development continuum

Ossificationist	Conservative	Active Development	Lets Do It
The chain should be essentially ossified and no further developments should happen unless critical bugs are found	Typically 99 out of 100 usecases are not worth it, extreme care and 1 year+ of research should be required before adding anything	We should regularly add new features where they make sense after careful study	Lets transform Bitcoin development into being an active project and start building really cool stuff, if we break something we can quickly fix it

Personally, I'm somewhere between an Ossificationist and a Conservative. My ideal development scenario is that a development window should open for 1 new add-in every 4 years on a set schedule. Those who want to add something in, will have to utilize that 4 year timeframe building the case for their new add-in and demonstrating all the benefits and showing lack of risk.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @jetecs6 27 Feb

Detailed to start the journey, nice!