Bithoven: A Formally Verified, Imperative Smart Contract Language for Bitcoin

The email discusses the capabilities and limitations of Bithoven, a platform that does not restrict access to witness data, allowing users to declare it with fewer restrictions compared to Simplicity. However, it does impose limitations on manual management of stack opcodes and employs static analysis for safety, which may complicate or obstruct introspection. The sender acknowledges a lack of full understanding regarding the detailed semantics of introspection but suggests it could be experimentally implemented, despite not being supported currently.

A code snippet is provided as an experimental example of how introspection might be executed within Bithoven, using Solidity language syntax. This snippet includes input definitions for transaction-related data and utilizes cryptographic verification to ensure the integrity of transactions and ownership through signature validation. The code outlines a method for verifying transactions by reconstructing and hashing various components, including transaction version, locktime, previous outputs, current outputs, and a signature from Alice, demonstrating a practical approach to introspection within the constraints of Bithoven's system.

Furthermore, the sender proposes a simplified approach to implementing introspection in Bithoven by introducing new syntax (introspect(tx_data)), which would allow for direct reading of transaction context without the need for the more complex script shown in the experimental example. This suggestion indicates a search for a more straightforward method of achieving introspection that aligns with Bithoven's existing framework and safety measures.