Bitcoin Soft Fork Proposal Gains Momentum Among Developers

Grassroots support for two Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) appears to be emerging for Bitcoin’s next soft fork, centered around two candidates: BIP 119 and BIP 348. These proposals are the formal method for discussing proposed changes to Bitcoin. Theoretically, if a BIP gains sufficient widespread support, it will be added to Bitcoin through a soft fork or a routine update to Bitcoin Core. Often, these BIPs are referred to by nicknames, and multiple proposals may be included in a soft fork.

Understanding BIP 119 and BIP 348

BIP 119 refers to OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV), while BIP 348 refers to OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK (CSFS). This article first appeared on Blockspace, the leading Bitcoin industry publication dedicated to covering Bitcoin tech, markets, mining, and ordinals. Get Blockspace articles directly in your inbox by clicking.

The Role of Bitcoin’s Technical Community

Bitcoin’s technical community typically debates these BIPs exhaustively. The Taproot Wizards—a Bitcoin development firm most well known for its Bitcoin NFTs—put out a helpful graphic explaining the process of these discussions. In short, the Bitcoin soft fork process requires a rough estimate of support from Bitcoin’s stakeholders, including developers, custodians, investors, and miners.

Signaling Support from Miners

The best proxy for this stakeholder support remains Bitcoin miners, who can flag support for an alteration to the codebase by signaling for changes in their mined blocks. Typically, Bitcoin Core requires 95% of blocks over a period to signal for the change before locking in the update for activation. Still, there’s no definitive heuristic for defining what “widespread support” looks like, and Bitcoin consensus is a constantly evolving, moving target.

Challenges in Achieving Consensus

Miners are useful for signaling a change only because they are a truly ‘countable’ entity on the Bitcoin network. In other words, it’s difficult to gauge real-world consensus given Bitcoin’s decentralized structure. Over the course of the last few weeks, numerous Western Bitcoin developers tweeted their support for CTV and CSFS—a strong signal that at least the Twitterverse is coming together in favor of certain changes to Bitcoin.

Innovative Features of CTV and CSFS

CTV and CSFS allow new ways of writing Bitcoin script. Bitcoin script is Bitcoin’s lower-level programming language used for, among other things, creating and sending transactions. Proposed by former Bitcoin core contributor Jeremy Rubin, CTV has been around for more than half a decade, whereas CSFS was only formalized in November 2024 by Jeremy Rubin and others.

What Are Covenants?

These two BIPs would enable “covenants” on Bitcoin. A covenant simply restricts the way a wallet can spend Bitcoin in future transactions. Covenants are generally expected to significantly improve the landscape for Bitcoin self-custody, fee management, and enhance existing Bitcoin tech like Lightning, Ark, and contract-based applications.

Low Risk of Exploitation

Additionally, developers consider these two proposals to be “narrowly defined.” In layman’s terms, this means that if they are activated, there is a low probability of users exploiting them for something unexpected. The Bitcoin developer community tends to cautiously deliberate any changes to Bitcoin. For example, even though BIP 119 has remained unchanged for nearly half a decade, there was once a time not long ago when CTV was considered far too aggressive for activation.

Future Implications for Bitcoin

The potential activation of BIP 119 and BIP 348 could usher in a new era for Bitcoin, where enhanced functionalities and improved security measures make the network more robust against future challenges. As Bitcoin continues to evolve, the importance of community consensus and developer collaboration cannot be overstated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the emerging consensus among Bitcoin developers regarding the soft fork proposals BIP 119 and BIP 348 marks a significant step forward in the evolution of Bitcoin. As discussions continue and support grows, the Bitcoin community eagerly anticipates the potential benefits these proposals could bring to the network.