A simple approach to allowing recursive covenants by enabling quines

The email discusses a proposal for enhancing Bitcoin Script with a focus on the implementation of P2WSH (Pay to Witness Script Hash), emphasizing its potential to add more power to the scripting capabilities without making it mandatory to include options for taproot. The discussion highlights the complexity involved in parsing Bitcoin Script, suggesting a novel approach to address these challenges by introducing a 'reverse order' opcode. This opcode would enable scripts to interpret subsequent script bytes in reverse order, a feature aimed at improving the functionality and flexibility of script execution.

Additionally, the proposal outlines the necessity for either an opcode that can reverse the byte order of a string or for incremental hashing opcodes to have the capability to implicitly reverse the strings they operate on. These suggested opcodes are described as simple yet immediately useful, adhering to the Bitcoin Script's principle of simplicity. The introduction of such opcodes is posited as not only beneficial for current use cases but also as a solid foundation for future enhancements that might introduce more complex functionalities, although these are explicitly stated as outside the scope of the current proposal.

The primary objective of the proposed changes is to facilitate recursive covenants within Bitcoin's scripting language, indicating a targeted approach to improve script capabilities while ensuring backward compatibility and simplicity. This focus on recursive covenants underlines the proposal’s intent to expand the script's functionality in a measured and thoughtful manner, potentially paving the way for more advanced features in the future without overcomplicating the present state of Bitcoin Script.