Author: Peter Todd 2018-08-15 21:46:18
Published on: 2018-08-15T21:46:18+00:00
In a message posted on August 15, 2018, Jorge Timón via bitcoin-dev argued that op_return outputs can be pruned as they are not spendable. He further stated that putting a hash on the witness script data would not make things better, and it definitely does not help “block size bloat”. In case someone is using op_return purely for timestamping purposes, Timón recommends using pay 2 contract instead. However, he warns that mere timestamps are insufficient for the task at hand. To support his argument, Timón cites the Satoshi Bitcoin white paper which incorrectly described Bitcoin as a timestamping system. According to him, timestamping is insufficient to prevent double-spends. Therefore, if one is actually just doing timestamping, they are better off using OpenTimestamps.
Updated on: 2023-06-13T04:04:14.098047+00:00