The quest to bring “covenants” to Bitcoin — a mechanism that enables more sophisticated transaction types by controlling how coins can be spent in the future — has been an ongoing challenge. Recent research sheds light on how covenants may be achieved without the contentious and complex process of a soft fork.

This new approach, outlined in a paper by Ethan Heilman, Victor Kolobov, Avihu Levy and Andrew Poelstra, introduces “ColliderScript,” an innovative methodology that could allow covenants on Bitcoin as it exists today.

The primary advantage of ColliderScript is that it enables covenants without requiring a protocol change such as OP_CAT. The concept of covenants…

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