Author: Tamas Blummer 2019-06-08 18:59:09
Published on: 2019-06-08T18:59:09+00:00
This post proposes a new approach to create native Bitcoin contracts that reduce mining's income volatility. This proposal involves a stricter interpretation of nSequence and a new opcode WORKVERIFY that uses accumulated work on the blockchain as a measure of time through computation. The proposal requires a soft fork and has two parts: (I) Stricter interpretation of nSequence to optionally refer accumulated work, and (II) New WORKVERIFY opcode redefining a NOPx in transaction script as termination with false if certain conditions are met. The proposal notes that accumulated work is strictly increasing and transaction eligibility rules would need no re-evaluation for descendant blocks, mempool, or re-org, since additional blocks or re-org can only increase the accumulated work. The proposal argues that a native Bitcoin contract is far superior to alternatives that could be offered on traditional markets, as it would be uncensorable, fully collaterized, require no oracle, no disagreement on settlement, and publicly observable. The proposal explains how the contract would work and benefit miners and speculators alike. Specifically, the proposal suggests that miners and speculators sign a transaction that has an nLockTime of S in the future, allowing both parties the option to alternatively spend committed output in case the other would not follow through and publish committing the collateral until S. The proposal argues that the ability to create contracts that reduce income volatility would lead to additional investment into mining and increase security on the base layer.
Updated on: 2023-05-20T20:37:51.365039+00:00