Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, publicly endorsed covenant opcodes and related technologies on October 1, 2026, framing them as a potential “last soft-fork” that could reduce future protocol changes while making Bitcoin Script more secure through formal verification by mathematical proofs. Several concrete proposals, including CTV (BIP 119) and OP_CAT (BIP 347), are being tested on the signet network, but none have been deployed on Bitcoin mainnet as of now. This position reflects his long-standing preference for modular opcodes over highly specific approaches. The Simplicity smart-contract language, developed by Blockstream and launched on the Liquid sidechain in 2025, serves as a reference for formally verifiable scripting aligned with his vision. The announcement had no immediate market effects and generated no token launches, as this remains a protocol-level debate.
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