The path to general computation on Bitcoin | StarkWare

StarkWare argues that general computation on Bitcoin becomes possible by combining covenants and STARK proofs, with the OP_CAT opcode supplying the needed expressibility. Bitcoin script was long considered unable to support such computation because of script length and opcode limits, though the 2021 Taproot upgrade lifted the script length limit. OP_CAT, disabled since 2012, could be reactivated via a soft fork requiring just 13 lines of code, and STARK proofs would add scalability, expressibility, onchain safety and flexibility.