Cryptography research firm [[alloc]init] has published the white paper for Bitcoin PIPEs v2, a major update to its scheme that enables covenants and zero-knowledge proofs on Bitcoin without requiring any changes to the protocol’s consensus rules.
The paper, authored by a ten-person team of cryptographers, builds on the previous Bitcoin PIPEs v1 concept but with a focus on hardened security and greater practicality.
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Instead of adding features like OP_CAT or OP_CTV via soft forks, the PIPEs approach uses witness encryption to enforce spending conditions cryptographically rather than through new Bitcoin opcodes. It locks a Bitcoin private key behind an arbitrary cryptographic statement that can only be unlocked with a valid proof.
[[alloc]init] founder Misha Komarov says this enables new capabilities.
“PIPEs introduce cryptographic covenants to Bitcoin, enabling vaults, non-custodial delegation, and pessimistic single-transaction ZK verification. There is no need for multisigs, DLCs, or changes to Bitcoin’s consensus—programmability lives in cryptography, not Script,” Komarov told Blockspace.
The company frames the work as part of a broader vision to make Bitcoin “more programmable, scalable, and expressive” while working within Bitcoin’s existing consensus (instead of waiting on a potential soft fork/new opcode).
The PIPEs scheme will require hefty computation to generate and verify the proofs to “unlock” a PIPE. However Komarov says “people could still run it with commercially available hardware”.
Speaking to security, [[alloc]init] COO Scott Odell said, “We’ll put out incentives for people to crack it. We’re off to a very strong start.”
Looking ahead, the team said that they will focus on implementation and refinement this year.
“We’re working on deploying PIPEs v2, publishing further research, and refining how PIPEs can emulate certain Script extensions—allowing more types of covenants without modifying Bitcoin consensus,” Komarov said.
