Published on: 2021-07-05T00:50:50+00:00
In a response to Jeremy's concerns about arbitrary covenants in the Bitcoin community, ZmnSCPxj highlights the importance of respecting the concerns of others while still allowing for useful tools. ZmnSCPxj counters Shinobi's worries about covenants by stating that altcoins already have similar issues, and recursive covenants would not exacerbate these problems. ZmnSCPxj argues that an "inescapable" covenant is comparable to a `while (true);` loop, essentially making covenants Turing-complete. However, he suggests that placing an upper bound on the number of recursions could prevent full Turing-completeness while still accommodating a wide range of use-cases. Moving to an email thread, Jeremy expresses concern over the Bitcoin community's reluctance to embrace arbitrary covenants, fearing potential unforeseen consequences. In response, Dave proposes an alternative approach to addressing concerns, suggesting that proving their unfounded or lesser severity rather than limiting useful tools may be more effective in fostering mutual respect. He also points out that some of the concerns raised by Shinobi are already present in altcoins and recursive covenants might not necessarily worsen these issues. Dave believes that imposing restrictions on Bitcoin's flexibility to avoid certain problems is unnecessary when unlimited covenants could potentially offer interesting and valuable features to the community.
Updated on: 2023-08-02T04:19:59.072454+00:00