Bitcoin\u2019s developer community has spent several months singing the praises of OP_CAT \u2013 a proposed soft fork change that many believe is Bitcoin\u2019s next evolution.<\/p>\n
BitVM<\/a> creator Robin Linus has his reservations, however, publishing an article on Thursday debunking perceived misconceptions about the widely touted change.<\/p>\n The developer\u2019s post \u2013 titled \u201cPrevent the CATastrophe<\/a>\u201d \u2013 argued that OP_CAT can introduce risks to Bitcoin that proponents tend to downplay. \u201cMy goal isn\u2019t to argue for or against op_cat, but to debunk these misconceptions and steer the discussion toward a more fact-based, rational analysis,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n One includes the introduction of new programs that could greatly alter the incentives of Bitcoin miners, and the security of the entire network.<\/p>\n \u201cThe design space for op_cat-based DeFi applications on Bitcoin is largely unexplored, and we cannot foresee all the innovations that might emerge and how they affect MEV (maximal extractable value),\u201d said Linus.<\/p>\n OP_CAT is an old Bitcoin opcode that was initially created to combine \u2013 or \u201cconcatenate\u201d \u2013 two pieces of data. It was removed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2010 due to security concerns, but was reintroduced in 2023 through BIP 347<\/a> as a way to let it handle more complex data structures, like Merkle trees, and enhance its functionality substantially.<\/p>\n On the other hand, many value Bitcoin\u2019s simple code and resistance to change as a beacon of its security and purity. As such, OP_CAT supporters often point to how the change only involves 10 lines of new code, and simply reintroduces old tech \u2013 thus minimizing its attack vectors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that you might not immediately exploit these 10 lines does not mean that op_cat won\u2019t interfere with the broader system and its incentive structures,\u201d countered Linus. \u201cSince it\u2019s impossible to predict all the consequences of activating op_cat, we cannot confidently assert its safety.\u201d<\/p>\n One of OP_CATs most touted benefits is its ability to introduce covenants (conditional payments) to Bitcoin. Linus argued that OP_CAT-based covenants would be \u201cinefficient in terms of block space and transaction fees,\u201d and that other opcode proposals would be better suited to this purpose.<\/p>\n In a message to CryptoPotato<\/em>, popular OP_CAT supporter Bob Bodily \u2013 co-founder and CEO of Bioniq \u2013 agreed with Linus on his particular criticism regarding covenants. \u201cThere are better covenants proposals (CTV) that got violently shut down in the past few years, whereas CAT has broader Bitcoin ecosystem support,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n One of the most popular proposed covenants use cases would be to enable trustless Bitcoin bridges, letting Bitcoin moving to other blockchains and L2 networks in a truly decentralized way. Rather than depending upon this, Linus and several colleagues recently published the \u201cBitVM2\u201d whitepaper, which outlines a method for creating trust-minimized Bitcoin bridges without any changes to Bitcoin Core<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Bodily, however, OP_CAT is a \u201clower level primitive\u201d offering far more than just covenants \u2013 including functionality that would help Linus\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n \u201cTake the BitVM model (or BitVM2) and CAT makes it significantly better,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMore efficient. Cheaper. More flexible. I don\u2019t know why Robin is coming out openly against CAT like this because it would make everything he is doing better.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Bitcoin Upgrade OP_CAT Isn\u2019t All It\u2019s Cracked Up To Be, Argues BitVM Creator<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bitcoin\u2019s developer community has spent several months singing the praises of OP_CAT \u2013 a proposed soft fork change that many believe is Bitcoin\u2019s next evolution. BitVM creator Robin Linus has his reservations, however, publishing an article on Thursday debunking perceived misconceptions about the widely touted change. Is OP_CAT the Future of Bitcoin? The developer\u2019s post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Is OP_CAT the Future of Bitcoin?<\/h2>\n
Covenants on Bitcoin?<\/h2>\n