As a side note,
new opcodes are required to bring sidechains functionality to the Bitcoin blockchain.
Adding
new opcodes to Bitcoin has been a difficult proposition in the past, but SegWit creates a better method of upgrading the scripting language.
It includes
a new opcode, aimed to increase the flexibility of bitcoin transactions.
Not exact matches
More recently, Bitcoin Core contributor Johnson Lau discussed how SegWit makes it much easier and safer to enable
new and old
opcodes in Bitcoin.
These
new proposed
opcodes may work as the foundations for
new functionalities, ones that could even come to help stop bitcoin exchanges and users from losing stolen funds.
With this in mind, Lau has put together another bitcoin proposal for a bundle of
new «
opcodes» (enabling
new smart contracts), many of which have been brought back in a testing environment, saying these would likely be rolled out in tandem with MAST.
Toward that goal, Osuntokun proposed a
new scheme that would allow watchtowers to store less data for the same security and is pushing for a
new bitcoin «
opcode» that make Lightning data simpler.