Pieter Wuille Unveils 'Miniscript,' A New Smart Contract Language for Bitcoin

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Smart contracts could soon get a boost in bitcoin as prominent programmer Pieter Wuille has unveiled a new coding language designed specifically for their use.

Posted to the bitcoin developer mailing list Monday, the 'Miniscript' language aims to make it easier for programmers to write up "Smart contracts" or conditions for spending bitcoins.

Programmers Wuille, Andrew Poelstra and Sanket Sanjalkar have been working on the code for roughly a year, Wuille said.

Backing up a bit, "Script" is the smart contracting language in bitcoin, which allows users to specify certain conditions need to be met before the bitcoin can be spent.

"Miniscript," on the other hand, builds on top of this programming language, improving on it in several ways.

Or d(c:pk(A),and v(vc:pk h(B),older(144 ). Miniscript builds on top of Script, able to "Compile" to bitcoin's native language.

The new language is getting applause from developers in the community.

Or, as bitcoin educator Jimmy Song described, it could even be used for underpinning the lightning network.

Thinking about it in the wider context of blockchain languages, Song commented that the smart contract language differs from ethereum's Solidity language, because while ethereum makes it possible to write many more types of smart contracts, Miniscript actually reduces the possibilities.

"Through large scale randomized tests we have confidence that the language design and associated witnesses are compatible with the existing consensus and standardness rules."

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