Bitcoin transactions to be changed due to software update

Bitcoin network's facing another update: the MAST innovation is suggested to increase smart contract flexibility. The idea has been introduced earlier, but now with Segwit, it can be implemented faster and more efficiently.

MAST (Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees) is a concept proposed by Bitcoin Core developers. Immediately after its release, the idea has not received a sufficient support due to complexities of implementing. In 2016, one of Bitcoin Core developers, Johnson Lau, suggested reverting to MAST, but the integration was delayed.

However, the situation has changed now: Once Segwit is adopted, MAST can be put in the network much faster. Therefore, a co-founder of Blockstream, Mark Friedenbach, has officially proposed adoption of improvement, having written a mail on that to Bitcoin developers.

There is no need for hard fork proposed by Friedenbach. Soft fork is enough to change the network rules. Three proposals to the network enhancement, offered one after the other, will lead to the MAST implementation.

Acceptance of the offer will significantly change transactions within the Bitcoin network, making them more flexible. For example, a user can specify a condition for transaction that will be committed only during its integration.

In addition, MAST does not disclose non-use scripts, performing a higher level of security, and opens up new scalability opportunities for your network.

In theory, the three-stage installation of MAST, proposed by Mark Friedenbach, is considered as complicated one. Nevertheless, in practice, he argues that it is quite simple process providing a wide range of possibilities. This, according to the developer, is a sufficient incentive for developers who do not need to delay the update installation.