What are Bitcoin covenants, and how do they work?
Bitcoin improvements can be achieved by implementing covenants. This article explains covenants, how they work and the debate around them. Drawbacks of Bitcoin covenantsVarious prominent Bitcoin experts, including Adam Back, Jimmy Song and Andreas Antonopoulos, have raised some concerns over the implementation of restrictive covenants, in particular with the BIP119.In particular, Antonopoulos has voiced concerns over "recursive covenants" that the new update could convey, thereby deteriorating the network. A recursive covenant occurs when a programmer restricts a transaction, but he does....
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BIP119, which adds limited covenants to Bitcoin, is the current conversation and many people question if Speedy Trial for Taproot was a good precedent.
Bitcoin stands out because it is a digital bearer asset that gives full private property rights to its users, and development must carefully protect this aspect.
At its core, bitcoin is about giving users better control of their money. Often called "programmable money", bitcoin has scripts that limit how future bitcoin transactions can be spent (and that control variables like who can spend them). One such script ensures the correct person is spending the bitcoin by checking if the correct signature was used before unlocking and sending the funds. This week, Blockstream core tech developer Russell O'Connor revealed he's been testing a couple of new scripts on an Elements Alpha sidechain (which is pegged to the bitcoin testnet) that could....
A Proof-of-Work system requires its users to perform some form of work to participate. The work must be difficult for the client but easy for the server/network to verify. For example, an email system that implements proof-of-work might require each sender's computer perform 1-2 seconds of work before sending an email. Deployed this way helps prevent spam. With Bitcoin, the POW also determines the approximate time between blocks and thus the rate that new bitcoins are created. Also read: Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Decreases for First Time in Almost Two Years. Proof-of-Work. The code posted....
To understand Bitcoin, people need to understand Proof-Of-Work. It might be the most crucial aspect of the network. Proof-Of-Work provides security, resolves the issuance problem, and guarantees “a ledger of ownership and transactions that is beyond dispute.” And that’s just the beginning. How does Proof-Of-Work accomplish all that? That’s what this section is all about. […]