The news of re-instating a few op-codes and scripting abilities has been met with much enthusiasm by Bitcoin Cash supporters, and after the bitcoin cash hard fork that will happen this May, the community will get some new op-code features.

The fork in May will have “several bitcoin script operation codes (op-codes) being added or reactivated.” Op-codes is an abbreviation for ‘operation codes’ which is basically a part of machine code that does a certain task.

The Bitcoin Cash codebase makes use of a scripting system in transactions similar to the Forth language, the protocol being able to create colored coins, and simplified smart contracts that can execute programmed functions.

The revival of op-code functions has been debated for quite a while, but the topic was recently brought back to light by Andrew Stone from Bitcoin Unlimited, which started the ‘Op-Group’ meetings on Github. Bitcoin cash developer that participated in the meeting were: Amaury Sechét from Bitcoin ABC, Dan Connolly from bitcoin.j.cash, Steve Shadders from Nchain, along with other programmers.

“In order to support non-trivial cash use cases for the bitcoin cash blockchain, a number of ecosystem participants would like to see some of the original bitcoin op-codes re-enabled for use in smart contracts,” read the meeting summary from February.

“However, the original issues associated with these opcodes remain valid — Namely, undefined behavior, and potential for DDoS attacks against the network. “

Mixed feelings Concerning Op- codes

The meeting summary revealed that the developers will re-activate nine op-codes that once existed in older bitcoin applications. A few op-code phrases were taken out due to fear of bugs.

For example, the op-code ‘OP_LSHIFT’ apparently could crash any bitcoin node if manipulated in a certain way. The re-establishing of op-codes was also met with some controversy within the community.

When Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) supporters reopened the subject, there was a disagreement regarding the use of op-codes or the lately developed Counterparty Cash implementation. During this argument, BU devotees displayed some fears towards ABC developers at the time.

Amaury Séchet said during the first meetings: “If Counterparty breaks, only Counterparty breaks. If OP_GROUP breaks, Bitcoin Cash breaks.” The Counterparty protocol makes use of a separate network to finalize the tokenization process as opposed to using the BCH chain.

£5 Million Pound Reward

But in spite of all the disagreements, some common ground was found with the subject of colored coins and op-codes which were the main theme of discussion at Satoshi’s Vision Conference in Tokyo. Also, Coingeek is willing to give out £5 million to any programmer or development team that can make a tokenization functionality for the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

The developers must make a basic system or set of interactive systems that will generate secure crypto tokens, wallet compatibility, and an audit solution that can verify the validity of the created tokens.

Coingeek said that the tokenization challenge doesn’t necessarily need smart contract ability, but it can have that particular functionality also.

“The solution must be provided with supporting design documentation, as well as working code that shall include source code — The solution may (but is not required to) involve execution of a smart contract solution on the blockchain,” said Coingeek.

Bitcoin cash followers are eager to see BCH gain some new features such as the ability to create colored coins or tokens that can signify any digital or physical asset.