It's been a while since we wrote about OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (OP_CTV), an op-code that would be enabled if BIP 119 is merged and activated in Bitcoin Core. Recently Jeremy Rubin, the Bitcoin Core contributor behind OP_CTV, released Sapio, "a framework for creating composable multi-transaction Bitcoin Smart Contracts". Sapio is a developer toolkit that will make it easier for individuals building products and services on Bitcoin to make more robust applications leveraging the network's native properties.

It will also be an extremely useful framework to leverage if BIP 119 or some other route gets OP_CTV merged into Core. Above is but one example of something desperately needed in Bitcoin if it is to be sufficiently distributed and censorship-resistant in the future; a decentralized mining pool that allows individual miners to distribute coinbase rewards. The expressiveness of the covenants that are enabled by OP_CTV is pretty mind blowing when you begin applying it to certain use cases. A decentralized mining pool payout scheme is only the tip of the ice berg.

From what I can glean, the Bitcoin development community seems to be very impressed with Sapio so far. The ability to write complex smart contracts within a bitcoin transaction with very few lines of code is a very exciting development. It will be very interesting to see what type of applications individuals build using this library. Especially if OP_CTV ever gets activated.

Don't sleep on the Bitcoin developer community. They are constantly improving the tooling that will bring more utility, and value, to the Bitcoin network despite the misconception that no one is able to innovate on Bitcoin.

Final thought...

I need some sleep.