Author: Christopher Gilliard 2021-04-17 03:57:55
Published on: 2021-04-17T03:57:55+00:00
It has been suggested that limitations on OP_RETURN transactions are not helpful in blocking arbitrary data embedding on the blockchain. Users can encode their data inside the values of legacy multi-signature scriptpubkeys, which are indistinguishable from "real" multisignature scriptpubkeys and must be kept in the UTXO set. However, this behavior is problematic as it differs from outputs using OP_RETURN, which are provably unspendable, and can therefore be safely omitted from the UTXO set. ZmnSCPxj suggests that the same technique can be used on P2PKH and P2WSH as well, making it difficult to check if the hash of a public key is indeed the hash of a public key unless the public key is revealed. It has been proposed that limiting OP_RETURN to one per block while implementing a layer 2 solution for timestamping would provide a clear and simple upgrade path for users. The details of this proposal will be discussed in a BIP to be released early next week.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T20:09:45.907777+00:00