Udi Wertheimer, the founder of the renowned Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards, recently revealed that the probability of activating the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal “OP_CAT” is close to 100%. This implies that the Bitcoin network might soon be able to execute smart contracts and other new features.
(Previous context: Satoshi Nakamoto was wrong? How the “OP_CAT soft fork” with 13 lines of code enables Bitcoin to implement smart contracts)
(Background information: Interpreting World3: A decentralized AI autonomous world on Bitcoin)
Recently, Udi Wertheimer, founder of the well-known Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards and Quantum Cats, disclosed on Xverse’s podcast that the probability of activating the Bitcoin feature “OP_CAT” is close to 100%.
It is understood that OP_CAT was launched on Bitcoin’s test network Signet on May 1 and assigned the BIP-420 number, indicating that the Bitcoin ecosystem is seriously considering upgrading to it.
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a formal proposal document used to present improvement suggestions to the Bitcoin community. Each BIP details potential improvements to the Bitcoin protocol or its technical operations.
What is OP_CAT?
OP_CAT is an opcode from early versions of Bitcoin, but Satoshi Nakamoto removed OP_CAT on August 15, 2010, due to concerns that it might cause memory usage and opcode size to grow exponentially. However, in October 2023, Bitcoin Core developer Ethan Heilman and Botanix Labs software engineer Armin Sabouri jointly released a draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) named “OP_CAT,” bringing OP_CAT back into the spotlight. The draft mentioned that advancements in blockchain technology in recent years have mitigated the issues previously caused by OP_CAT.
OP_CAT provides the ability to concatenate script fragments. Before its introduction, each UTXO script was executed independently. With OP_CAT, we can break down complex execution logic into a series of concatenated simple script fragments, stored in different UTXOs and created by different transactions. When full execution is required, full nodes use the OP_CAT instruction to concatenate and execute these script fragments in sequence.
With OP_CAT, Bitcoin can achieve more complex types of smart contracts, such as multi-signature contracts, time-locked contracts, and other conditional payment contracts. This will make the Bitcoin network more competitive.
Udi Wertheimer is the number one fan of OP_CAT
Udi Wertheimer has previously publicly supported restoring OP_CAT on the Bitcoin network multiple times. After OP_CAT officially received the Bitcoin proposal number BIP-420, Wertheimer celebrated by posting:
Additionally, the inscription series “Quantum Cats,” launched by Udi Wertheimer in early February, was actually issued to commemorate “OP_CAT.” The initial price of the series was 0.1 BTC, the floor price once reached 0.475 BTC, and is currently reported at 0.263 BTC.
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