According to PANews, the operator of the bitcoin.org domain, known as Cobra, has alerted the community to emerging developments in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Cobra highlighted that unidentified Bitcoin users outside of Bitcoin Core are preparing to introduce a user-activated soft fork (UASF) next year. He mentioned on the X platform that some Bitcoin holders are planning to implement the Check Template Verify (CTV) soft fork through UASF sometime in 2025, although it has not garnered sufficient attention.
CTV, which stands for 'Check Template Verify,' represents a series of improvements aimed at introducing the concept of Bitcoin contracts. These contracts establish conditions for Bitcoin spending within specific wallets. Described by Jeremy Lubin in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 119 (BIP 119), these developments aim to enhance the security of Bitcoin transactions. One notable feature is the 'vault,' a cold storage address with spending conditions that compel users to send transactions to a single predetermined wallet. Additionally, users can cancel these transactions before a set time to prevent errors or malicious activities. However, the main drawback of this update relates to fungibility, as Bitcoins locked in these addresses might be perceived as having lower value. Moreover, the added complexity and introduction of new code could expose the Bitcoin codebase to attacks exploiting the update.
Despite these concerns, the node community will ultimately decide the value of these new additions through UASF. The concept of contracts remains under discussion within the community. Some members believe they are genuinely useful and should be included in Bitcoin Core, while others view it as a desperate attempt to introduce these features.
