Are Bitcoin covenants scary?

Back in 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto disabled OP_CAT – one of the opcodes that could be used to create covenants.

Today, the most popular proposals are CTV and a diminished version of CAT. Are they dangerous for Bitcoin?

According to Blockstream researcher Andrew Poelstra, the threats are overstated and the benefits are much greater than any possible drawback.

Covenant can help the Lightning Network scale, can improve the power of BitVM, and can enable proper two way pegs to create trust-minimized sidechains.

Listen to S15 E17 of the Bitcoin Takeover podcast to learn more!

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