Updated BIP for OP_CAT

[Ethan Heilman]

Hi everyone,

We've recently made a number of updates to the OP_CAT BIP proposal including adding a rationale section, an expanded backwards compatibility section and an updated reference implementation.

It can be found as a PR to the bitcoin/bips repo here: 
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/pull/1525
or as BINANA BIN-2024-0001:
https://github.com/bitcoin-inquisition/binana/blob/master/2024/BIN-2024-0001.md

Thanks,
Ethan

[Ali Sherief]

Hi Ethan,

Very good to see your OP_CAT design is now on the mailing list.

Inside the BIP text, you mention that a sufficiently large OP_CAT script can "support tree signatures with a thousand public keys." I think it would be more useful to put the theoretical limit there, as it is buried along with the rest of the data on tree signatures inside the reference link to Blockstream's web page, which could go stale for whatever reason.

On a further note, if there are enough practical uses for tree signatures, we could make it into a fully fledged BIP too, instead of just something cool that would make the Stacker News front page.

- Ali

[Ethan Heilman]

A number of people have privately sent me questions about the status
of the BIP number for OP_CAT. I want to publicly clarify two points in
regards to the OP_CAT BIP:
i. The OP_CAT BIP authors, Armin and I, have formally requested a BIP number,
ii. and no BIP number has yet been assigned (despite what is being
said on twitter).

[Ethan Heilman]

Excellent point, I've updated the BIP to specify the theoretical
maximum of public keys. See commit
https://github.com/EthanHeilman/bips/commit/852502b9cf0568dc4c75d93aaaaee3d102002ec7

> On a further note, if there are enough practical uses for tree signatures, we could make it into a fully fledged BIP too

I'd love to see a tree signature BIP. You should make one.

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