BIP-420 officially proposes the restoration of the OP_CAT opcode to introduce "contract" functionality in Bitcoin

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal BIP-420 has officially proposed the restoration of the OPCAT opcode to introduce the "Covenants" feature on Bitcoin. Udi Wertheimer, co-founder of Taproot Wizards and advocate for OPCAT, stated that OP_CAT will enable functionalities such as smart contracts, secure cross-chain bridges, on-chain transactions, and zero-knowledge proof verification on Bitcoin.

The so-called "Covenants" is an advanced scripting feature that allows specific conditions to be set for the use of Bitcoin in future transactions. This will open up numerous application scenarios, such as creating secure "vaults" that allow transaction rollbacks, automating regular payments, setting timed transfers for inheritance scenarios, and complex financial instruments like escrow and bonds.

It is reported that the proposal was written by Ethan Heilman and Armin Sabouri, aiming to redefine the opcode OPSUCCESS126 in a backward-compatible manner through a soft fork to restore OPCAT. However, whether the OP_CAT soft fork can be realized depends on multiple considerations, including technical, security, and community consensus.

The concept of Bitcoin "Covenants" can be traced back at least to 2013. In addition to OP_CAT, there are several other "Covenants" proposals, such as CTV, CSFS, and LNHANCE, which are currently at different stages of research and discussion.