The support of grassroots for two Bitcoin (BIP) improvement measures appears to be emerging for the next soft fork of Bitcoin, centered around two candidates: bips 119 and 348.
Bips is the formal procedure for the discussion of suggested changes in Bitcoin. In the theory, if a BIP gets a sufficiently extensive support, it will be added to Bitcoin, with a soft fork or a routine updating the Bitcoin core. Typically, these bips are determined by nicknames and many measures can be combined with a soft fork. BIP 119 refers to OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFIAL (CTV) while BIP 348 refers to OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK (CSFS).
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The technical community of Bitcoin is usually argued by these bips so much. The Taproot Wizards -A Bitcoin Development Firm that is known -cognizable for its Bitcoin NFTS -Out an excellent graphic that explains the confusing and seemingly circular Process of these discussions.
In short, the process of soft fork of bitcoin requires a rough support estimate from bitcoin stakeholders, including developers, custodians, investors and miners. The best proxy for the support of this stakeholder remains Bitcoin miners, which can provide support for a codebase change by signing for changes in their mine blocks. Usually, the bitcoin core Question For 95% of blocks over a period of time to signal for change before updating on updating for activation.
However, there is no definite heuristic for determining what the “wide support” looks like, and the agreed bitcoin is an ongoing emerging, moving target. Miners are worthwhile for signing a change only because they are a real ‘counting’ creature on the Bitcoin network. In other words, it is difficult to get a saying of the agreed world consensus provided by the decentralized structure of Bitcoin.
Over February and March, we registered a specific shift because many developers provided their explicit support for two bips.
What is in a proposal?
Over the last weeks, many Western Bitcoin developers tweet their support for CTV and CSFS – a strong signal that at least twitterverse will come together in favor of some changes in Bitcoin.
CTV and CSFS allow new ways of writing a bitcoin script. The Bitcoin script is the lower level of bitcoin language used for, among other things, creating and sending transactions. Former Bitcoin core contributing to Jeremy Rubin, the CTV has been for more than half a decade, while the CSFS was formal in November 2024 by Jeremy Rubin and Brandon Black.
These two bips will provide “Covenants” to Bitcoin. A covenant only prevents the way a wallet can spend bitcoin on future transactions. Covenants are usually Looking forward To significantly improve the scene for self-custody, charge management, and enhance existing bitcoin techs such as lightning, arches, and contract-based applications.
In addition, developers consider these two proposals “narrowly defined.” In terms of laity, this means, if they are activated, there is a low possibility of users who take advantage of them for something unexpected. The Bitcoin developer community tends to carefully meant any changes to Bitcoin. For example, although BIP 119 has remained unchanged for almost half a decade, it has not been long before the CTV is considered too aggressive for activation.
It’s been a long time
You can remember that Rubin’s previous campaign for CTV received a strong push – noticeably from bitcoiners with great compliance, including Adam Back and Jimmy Song. The criticism has evolved in significant pushing from many in the Bitcoin community, finally leading Rubin to take a step back from Bitcoin together.
So what has changed? Recent Advocacy for OP_CAT Opcode (BIP 347) as if expanding the Overton window of acceptable -acceptable Bitcoin measures, CTV & CSFS framing as “conservative” options. It is important to note that most OP_CAT supporters also in favor of bips 119 and 348 (and most measures in general).
What can we expect next? For one, more talk. Expected to gather developers at some technical conferences such as Opnext In April, BTC ++ in July and Tabconf In October. When developers begin to form rough consensus, then the actual activation of the soft fork moves to miners, communities and investors.
However, there is no formal process for “How to GET FORK BITCOIN.” So we were left with many open questions. For example, will one include a potentially soft fork Basy CTV and CSFS? OP_CAT – which is often included in this opcode suite – join the conversation? How can an actual soft fork activate? And other stakeholders like Bitcoin Miners will remember?
Only one thing is clear: you will need to be comfortable with many abbreviations.
