Why Should You Care About Bitcoin’s OP_CAT? The Biggest Narrative After Lightning Network

Written by: Jaleel Jialiu, BlockBeats

Earlier this year, I was writing13 lines of code to help Bitcoin realize smart contracts? Understanding OP_CAT soft forkWhen OP_CAT was first published, it was still an unfamiliar term to many people. If it weren’t for the Bitcoin NFT project Taproot Wizards using meme culture to launch the Quantum Cat series NFT to promote OP_CAT, few people would know this seemingly boring technical concept.

But just half a year later, OP_CAT has become very popular and is even regarded as the next "Lightning Network". The recently popular Fractal Bitcoin network is actually the code implementation of OP_CAT in Bitcoin.Token FB tripled or quadrupled within a few days of going online. Therefore, in the Bitcoin ecosystem, multiple OP_CAT-based protocols were born in just one day, such as CAT20 on the Fractal Network, which also featured the concept of OP_CAT. During the days of casting, the GAS of the Fractal Network was once pulled to more than 5,000. At present, the price of a CAT in the over-the-counter market is around $5.5, and there are even very few orders without a market. Early minters have achieved a 5 to 20-fold increase. The Quantum Cat has also been able to maintain a price of 0.25BTC, becoming a blue chip of Bitcoin NFT.

It seems that as long as it touches OP_CAT, this thing can pull the market.

Not onlyCommunityOP_CAT is a technology that is discussed a lot among Bitcoin developers. I looked through this year's Bitcoin Optech newsletter and Bitcoin developer conferences, and OP_CAT frequently appeared in discussions. It is a regular guest.

Currently, the OP_CAT Bitcoin BIP draft jointly released by Bitcoin Core developers Ethan Heilman and Armin Sabouri has now been officially named BIP347. Many heavyweights in the Bitcoin field, such as Tadge Dryja, the author of the Lightning Network white paper, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, CTO of Lightning Labs, the main developer of the Lightning Network, and Andrew Poelstra, director of research at Blockstream, have shown great support for OP_CAT.

Why do Lightning Network developers favor OP_CAT?

To understand this phenomenon, we have to start with the Lightning Network. In 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto mentioned the prototype of the Lightning Network in an email. As a key solution for Bitcoin expansion and payment speed improvement, the Lightning Network has attracted the attention of a large number of developers since its inception.

In the past two years, the concept of "Bitcoin ecology" has gradually gained momentum, and various Bitcoin expansion solutions such as side chains and virtual machines have sprung up, attracting many investors, but in the eyes of those senior Bitcoin developers, they are not mainstream and are not worthy of being accepted by the public. After all, the Lightning Network is currently the best "payment channel" in Bitcoin in the eyes of the public, and it is also one of the few "posthumous children" of Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin.CommunityThe spiritual "son of legitimacy".

However, things have changed dramatically in the past year. Several developers have announced their withdrawal from work related to the Lightning Network, and voices denying the Lightning Network have been heard one after another, especially from some senior developers. Fiatjaf, the founder of Nostr, was even more blunt: "The Lightning Network has been defrauding Bitcoin users of their time, energy, and money for six years."

In this context, some developers are looking for the next "Lightning Network". OP_CAT is considered by many Bitcoin developers to be the next major breakthrough for Bitcoin after the Lightning Network. Since OP_CAT is highly technical, before discussing what OP_CAT is and what OP_CAT can do, let's first get to know the Bitcoin developers who favor OP_CAT.

Bitcoin developers supporting OP_CAT

Lightning Network White Paper Author

Tadge Dryja 是闪电网络白皮书的作者之一，2015 年 Tadge Dryja 与另一位闪电网络白皮书的作者 Joseph Poon，在 Elizabeth Stark 的牵头下，创建了 Lightning Labs。与另一家比特币闪电网络公司 BlockStream 鼎足而立，两者最大的区别是，Lightning Labs 用的是 Go 编程语言，Blockstream 则用的是 C 编程语言。

然而在 2016 年底，Tadge Dryja 与 Lightning Labs 团队发生了分歧和争吵，因此在 Lightning Labs 刚成立一年时，Tadge Dryja 选择离开，转而加入麻省理工学院的数字货币倡议Community（DCI），继续自己对闪电网络的研究。在 MIT DCI，他参与了多个研究项目，主要集中在cryptocurrencyand intelligencecontractThis includes the development of the Utreexo project, a new Bitcoin scalability technology designed to make Bitcoin nodes smaller and faster. In 2022, Tadge Dryja joined Lightspark as a senior research scientist. At Lightspark, he continues to solve problems with Bitcoin andBlockchainscalability issues, leveraging his expertise as co-inventor of the Lightning Network.

It is because of his Bitcoin IntelligencecontractWith profound attainments in scalability technology, Tadge Dryja also discovered the potential of OP_CAT early on, and has been supporting the testing of OP_CAT on the Bitcoin test network, and encouraging developers to try to "destroy" OP_CAT to discover its potential problems.

CTO, Lightning Labs

Olaoluwa Osuntokun (Roasbeef) is another co-founder and CTO of Lightning Labs. He is also an outstanding Bitcoin developer who has made important contributions to the research and development of the Lightning Network. It can be said that the early team of Lightning Labs is not inferior to Blockstream.

Speaking of Olaoluwa Osuntokun, we have to mention the "gentleman's dispute" between him and Tadge Dryja. Interestingly, a big reason why Tadge Dryja left Lightning Labs was Olaoluwa. When Tadge Dryja worked at Lightning Labs, the first version of the protocol he developed was called LIT, which was not compatible with BOLT developed by Blockstream, but Olaoluwa's was compatible, so it gradually gained recognition and favor from more developers, completing the latecomer's success, which to some extent accelerated Dryja's departure.

However, history is always full of drama. Today, these two “old enemies” from Lightning Labs are now jointly supporting OP_CAT.

Head of Research, Blockstream

There seems to be a rumor among the people that Blockstream is the "boss" behind Bitcoin. Such rumors are not groundless. In 2014, Adam Back, the "father of PoW", gathered many well-known early Bitcoin developers such as Matt Corallo, Greg Maxwell, and Pieter Wuille to establish Blockstream, and in the subsequent Bitcoin expansion war, he clearly stood up and promoted the Lightning Network, which has made the Lightning Network what it is today.

At present, in the discussion about OP_CAT, Blockstream's research director Andrew Poelstra is also a person who can never be avoided. Andrew Poelstra is the director of research at Blockstream and a senior Bitcoin cryptography script developer. His influence in the industry is self-evident. As early as January 30, 2021, he wrote an article titled "CAT and Schnorr Tricks I》 discussed OP_CAT and pointed out that combining OP_CAT with CHECKSIGFROMSTACK can provide a clever method of transaction introspection.

Although Blockstream has not yet created a separateBlockchain, but they provided support for testing OP_CAT through Bitcoin Inquisition (a test network for evaluating new Bitcoin features). This is like building aSafetyA “training ground” for the machine learning algorithm, allowing researchers to carefully observe its performance under real-world conditions.

Andrew Poelstra also compared OP_CAT with other proposals such as OP_CTV, pointing out that OP_CAT provides broader flexibility while OP_CTV is more narrowly focused on non-recursive smart contracts.

Author of BIP 347

In the promotion of OP_CAT, Bitcoin developers Ethan Heilman and Armin Sabouri made a significant contribution. They co-authored and promoted the OP_CAT proposal, which has been formally designated as BIP 347. This proposal aims to redefine the opcode OP_SUCCESS126 through a soft fork in order to re-enable OP_CAT.

Armin Sabouri has focused on improvements to the Bitcoin script and consensus layers in the past. He believes that although OP_CAT is not the final solution, it provides the possibility of realizing various new functions and is an important step in improving Bitcoin scripts.

Ethan Heilman is also the person who influenced Andrew Poelstra's thinking. It was during a private communication in the fall of 2019 that Andrew Poelstra, who originally did not support the so-called Bitcoin smart contract function, changed his mind. Ethan Heilman pointed out that although people have concerns about the so-called Bitcoin smart contract function, these smart contracts that are considered harmful can actually be implemented through CHECKMULTISIG. To prove this, Ethan Heilman launched a challenge on social media, encouraging people to come up with feasible "dark" smart contracts, but no one has succeeded so far.

StarkWare

StarkWare is a company focused on developingBlockchainCompanies that expand capacity, especially those that useZero knowledge proofThe company is committed to outsourcing complex computations from main chains (such as Ethereum) to secondary networks without sacrificingSafetyIn this way, StarkWare solvesBlockchainThe scalability problem of the blockchain is solved while maintaining the transparency and verifiability of transactions.

StarkWare's promotion of OP_CAT stems from its interest in Bitcoin network expansion and smart contract functionality. OP_CAT is a Bitcoin opcode that allows more complex transactions and contracts to be executed on the Bitcoin network through the concatenation of data. By enabling OP_CAT, StarkWare attempts to implement smart contract capabilities similar to Ethereum on Bitcoin, thereby expanding Bitcoin's use cases and enhancing its functionality.

In July 2022, StarkWare launched a $1 million research fund specifically for studying the pros and cons of enabling OP_CAT on Bitcoin. This fund is intended to fund research on how to enable OP_CAT on Bitcoin.SafetyEffectively implement OP_CAT. Innovative researchers and developers.

In addition, StarkWare has demonstrated the use of OP_CAT to implement Bitcoin in the test environment, especially on Signet.Zero knowledge proofThese works demonstrate how OP_CAT can be used to implement more complex operations on the Bitcoin network, such asZero knowledge proofThese are key parts of smart contract functionality. Recently, StarkWare has also established a partnership with sCrypt to jointly explore the design of a PoC (proof of concept) bridge built on OP_CAT and ZK magic, which shows that StarkWare may also launch an OP_CAT-related protocol in the near future.

other

The other developers are not so famous, so we will talk about them together.

Salvatore Ingala 一直在深入研究比特币支付池和智能合约，他提出使用 OP_CAT 优化支付池退出流程的方案，认为这可以显著减少链上数据和操作成本。Ingala 视 OP_CAT 为其他比特币扩展策略的潜在插件，如 Arc 和 Coinpools，甚至未来比特币的 Optimistic rollups，以提高效率和Safetysex.

Anthony Towns 是 Bitcoin Inquisition 的主要开发者之一，这是一个类似于测试网络但更加灵活的工具，用于测试尚未广泛接受的比特币协议变更。Towns 在 Inquisition 平台上推动了 OP_CAT 的激活，为 OP_CAT 提供了一个Safety的「试验田」。尽管 Towns 认识到 OP_CAT 在测试新功能和探索比特币脚本能力方面的重要性，他仍对比特币增加过多可编程性持谨慎态度，担心这可能增加比特币被审查或控制的风险。

Robin Linus, the creator of BitVM, believes that the reintroduction of OP_CAT provides a powerful tool for Bitcoin, especially to support projects like BitVM, which make it easier and more efficient to verify arbitrary computations on Bitcoin. With the implementation of OP_CAT, the Bitcoin ecosystem is able to create more general and expressive smart contracts, promoting a more functional and practical blockchain environment.

Why is there so much attention being paid to the development of the Lightning Network?

Why do Lightning Network developers show such great interest in OP_CAT? To understand this, we need to first understand the essence of OP_CAT.

What is OP_CAT?

OP_CAT is an opcode in Bitcoin script that is used to concatenate two data fragments on the stack into a larger element. Although its function seems simple, it can provide more smart contract capabilities for the Bitcoin network, allowing developers to create and process more complex data and transaction logic.

OP_CAT is not a new opcode. It existed in early versions of Bitcoin, but was disabled in later versions due to security and complexity concerns. However, as Bitcoin continues to develop, more and more developers believe that it is time to re-enable OP_CAT. For more information, see: "13 lines of code to help Bitcoin realize smart contracts? Read about OP_CAT soft fork"

But why does this seemingly simple operation trigger such a big discussion among Bitcoin developers? One of the key reasons is that it can significantly improve the smart contract capabilities of the Bitcoin network, allowing developers to implement some functions that are more complex or even impossible to achieve in current Bitcoin scripts.

OP_CAT’s potential in payment applications

OP_CAT has shown great potential for application in payment systems, especially in off-chain protocols and payment channel networks. Its re-enabling will greatly improve the operational efficiency of these systems and reduce the burden of on-chain transactions. The main functions of OP_CAT after implementation include:

Multisig Optimization: In multisig scenarios, OP_CAT can help users merge multiple signatures and combine them into a single data block, reducing the number of signatures that need to be submitted. This not only saves on-chain space, but also reduces transaction fees. Multisig is very important in Bitcoin's payment security and shared account management, especially in applications such as the Lightning Network, and OP_CAT can make this process more efficient.

State Contracts: OP_CAT can also be used for state contracts. This type of contract is a form of smart contract that can maintain state across multiple transactions. Through OP_CAT, developers can stitch together the state information of different transactions to implement more complex contract logic on Bitcoin. For example, some complex payment protocols or distributed applications (such as lotteries, gambling, or other complex financial products) need to maintain a certain state between multiple on-chain transactions, which can be achieved through OP_CAT.

Scalability of payment channel networks: Another important application scenario of OP_CAT is a payment channel network similar to the Lightning Network. In a payment channel network, users usually make a large number of micropayments off-chain, and only on-chain for final settlement. The splicing function of OP_CAT can make the intermediate transactions in the payment channel more effectively managed and verified. By splicing different payment requests together, users can perform more complex payment operations without increasing the burden on the chain. In this way, the throughput and efficiency of the payment channel can be significantly improved.

With the advancement of the BIP347 proposal and more developers and researchers joining the exploration of OP_CAT, we have reason to believe that this once-shelved opcode will bring new vitality to the Bitcoin network. Just as the Lightning Network has gone from concept to mainstream, the reactivation of OP_CAT may also become the next key milestone in Bitcoin expansion and payment innovation.

The article comes from the Internet:Why you should care about Bitcoin Xiaobai NavigationOP_CAT? The Biggest Narrative After Lightning Network

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