TechFlow news — On March 17, according to Blockspace Media, after more than four years, the Bitcoin community is moving forward with changes to the project's underlying software. Currently, two Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs)—BIP 119 and BIP 348—are gaining grassroots support and could be implemented in Bitcoin’s next soft fork.
These two BIPs introduce new ways of writing Bitcoin scripts and have received clear backing from numerous developers. BIP 119 refers to OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV), while BIP 348 proposes OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK (CSFS). The proposals would enable "covenants" on Bitcoin—restrictions that can control how wallets spend bitcoins in future transactions—and are expected to significantly improve Bitcoin self-custody, fee management, and enhance existing technologies such as the Lightning Network, Ark, and contract-based applications.
Developers consider these proposals “well-defined,” meaning there's a low likelihood users will employ them for unintended purposes even after activation. The Bitcoin developer community has always cautiously reviewed any proposed changes. Notably, although BIP 119 has remained unchanged for nearly five years, CTV was recently still considered too radical by some.
The Bitcoin soft fork process requires support from stakeholders including developers, custodians, investors, and miners, with miners signaling their approval by including specific markers in the blocks they mine. Typically, Bitcoin Core requires 95% of blocks to signal support over a given period before an upgrade is locked in for activation.
Throughout February and March, multiple developers publicly expressed support for CTV and CSFS on social media—an indication of strong consensus forming within the Bitcoin community around these changes. Further discussions are expected at technical conferences such as OPNEXT in April, BTC++ in July, and TABConf in October. Once preliminary consensus among developers is reached, the focus for actual soft fork activation will shift to miners, the broader community, and investors.
