ColliderScript Introduces Non-Fork Method for Bitcoin Covenants
The introduction of “covenants” to Bitcoin aims to enable more sophisticated transaction types by controlling how coins can be spent in the future. Recent research suggests achieving covenants without a soft fork.
A paper by Ethan Heilman, Victor Kolobov, Avihu Levy, and Andrew Poelstra presents “ColliderScript,” a methodology that could allow for covenants on Bitcoin as it exists today.
ColliderScript's advantage lies in enabling covenants without requiring protocol changes like OP_CAT. The concept has raised concerns due to substantial consensus layer changes needed to implement it.
ColliderScript demonstrates that covenant functionality is feasible on Bitcoin now, albeit at a high computational cost, initially estimated at millions of dollars per transaction due to required computational power.
Despite its impracticality in current form, the paper serves as a proof of concept. Co-author Avihu Levy anticipates a role for costly covenants in Bitcoin, suggesting they may accelerate the social process toward a soft fork.
ColliderScript utilizes SHA-1 cryptography, demanding significant computational resources for covenant-like outcomes. Levy and his co-authors expect advances in hardware or algorithms may reduce these costs over time.
Levy remains confident in improving hash function efficiency. He notes that if SHA-1 becomes problematic, alternatives like SHA-256 could be integrated into the algorithm.
While efficiencies may improve, Levy acknowledges that formally including covenants through a soft fork would remain the "cleanest, safest and most efficient" solution.
This research not only outlines a technical pathway but also demonstrates covenants' utility, potentially hastening consensus-building among Bitcoin stakeholders. Levy draws parallels to the development of BitVM, which evolved from a high-cost innovation into a more scalable solution, suggesting ColliderScript could follow a similar path.
The project originated from Levy's curiosity and persistence since April. As Bitcoin faces scaling and transaction flexibility challenges, grassroots experimentation like this could significantly impact Bitcoin's development, irrespective of whether ColliderScript gains mainstream acceptance.