OP_CAT could go live on Bitcoin within 12 months: Eli Ben Sasson

As a seasoned researcher with years of experience delving into the intricacies of blockchain technology, I find the potential implementation of OP_CAT on Bitcoin to be an exciting development. The idea of enhancing Bitcoin’s capabilities without compromising its inherent simplicity and robustness is indeed captivating.

Eli Ben Sasson, CEO of StarkWare, anticipates that the significant improvement called OP_CAT for the Bitcoin network will be activated within the upcoming year.

At Devcon 2024 in Thailand, Ben-Sasson shares with CryptoMoon that the integration of OP_CAT will unlock a variety of innovative features for Bitcoin. These include agreements known as “covenants,” zero-knowledge rollups, and layer 2 networks.

Remarkably, the adoption of OP_CAT makes Starknet a pioneer, as it’s set to be the initial layer-2 platform capable of natively settling transactions on both Bitcoin and Ethereum networks.

In simpler terms, although OP_CAT for Bitcoin appears intricate with numerous possible enhancements, according to Ben-Sasson, its underlying idea is surprisingly straightforward.

“If you think of Bitcoin as an old scientific calculator — not like your smartphone, which can run any apps — but it can do a bunch of computations.”

The OP_CAT feature introduces a new button on this scientific calculator, which combines or links multiple strings of characters. This means that users can now link two strings together using this button… Furthermore, with this addition, the Bitcoin calculator becomes capable of examining files, executing programs, reading lengthy texts, and performing operations on them,” Ben-Sasson explained.

The term “OP_CAT,” which stands for “operation code concatenate,” was initially incorporated into the Bitcoin network by Satoshi Nakamoto. However, Nakamoto had concerns that OP_CAT might pose security risks to the network, leading him to remove it from the active opcodes in 2010 as part of an initiative to make Bitcoin more straightforward and resilient.

As an analyst, I’m excited to share that in October 2023, cryptographer Ethan Heilman and Botanix Labs lead engineer Armin Sabouri revitalized the concept of OP_CAT. They proposed reactivating this opcode through a soft fork within the Bitcoin network, injecting new life into its potential use.

According to Ben-Sasson, the reason behind OP_CAT and StarkWare’s involvement in the Bitcoin Layer 2 (L2) sphere is to enable Bitcoin to fulfill its “initial intent and objective.

[Ben-Sasson stated that] Bitcoin is presently quite costly for use as a payment network, and it’s so much so that the fees are often ten times more than the price of a simple cup of coffee. He envisions a future where this isn’t the case.

The StarkWare CEO also spoke about building a Bitcoin L2 at the Bitcoin Next conference in Bangkok on Nov. 13.

Multiple specialists informed CryptoMoon that the implementation of OP_CAT might lead Bitcoin to surpass Ethereum in terms of financial activities and volume within the decentralized finance sector, in simpler terms.

Although there’s been a significant rise in the creation of Bitcoin “sidechains,” frequently referred to as Bitcoin L2s, these aren’t exactly the kind of layer-2 networks that experts typically discuss.

This is due to the fact that sidechains aren’t natively settled within the Bitcoin network. Instead, they typically rely on a two-way connection like Stacks’ proof-of-transfer system or a linking methodology.

As an analyst, I’ve come to understand Lachlan Feeney’s perspective on sidechains. He, as the founder of Web3 development firm Labrys, has voiced his concerns that these sidechains may not provide the required level of security or innovation for the traditional Bitcoin community, often referred to as ‘Bitcoin OGs’. Therefore, he believes it might not be compelling enough for them to invest their idle Bitcoins.

2024-11-14 05:24

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