We implement a smart contract to outsource solving Sudoku puzzles on Bitcoin, utilizing the paradigm we published earlier. The general problem of solving Sudoku puzzles is computationally intensive as grid size increases. In fact, it is known to be NP-complete, same as the Travelling Salesman Problem we introduced previously. The advantage of solving it on Bitcoin is that we only have to verify if the proposed solution is valid, which can be done efficiently. The intense computation of solving the puzzle is done off chain.

We have made great strides in igniting the smart contract revolution on Bitcoin, despite many unforeseeable challenges of 2020.

We started from virtually nothing when the year started and have witnessed the explosive growth of smart contracts in Bitcoin using sCrypt, after the Genesis upgrade. To our greatest pleasure, our users have independently created the most innovative and sophisticated contracts, even we at sCrypt could not have imagined. Recently, we have seen companies start hiring sCrypt engineers, such as Volt and TokenSwap. …

sCrypt IDE v0.5.0 allows users to deploy a contract to testnet and interact with it without writing a single line of code.

Prerequisite

We need a private key of testnet to fund the deployment and calling transactions. To do so, open sCrypt settings in VSCode and input your private key.

Deploy

1. Before we deploy a contract, we need to compile it. Right click on it and select Compile to Bitcoin Script.
2. Now click the sCrypt logo in the Activity Bar on the left, you should see your contract listed. …

We present a novel paradigm to outsource intensive computation using Bitcoin smart contracts. It is amenable to solving a large set of computationally intensive problems. We apply it to the Travelling Salesman Problem as an example.

Travelling Santa/Salesman Problem

On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus needs to traverse every family to deliver presents to the children. He wants to find the shortest route to make the round-trip of all chimneys before preparing his sledge. Impressed by Bitcoin’s superior smart contracting capability, he decides to leverage it to tackle this challenge, which is computationally intensive since the number of chimneys is large¹.

He deploys the following contract and locks up an entire bitcoin in the UTXO containing it. Anyone that finds a path no longer than a given threshold can unlock and redeem the bounty². It is noteworthy that the contract does not recompute the path, but merely verify if its length meets requirement. …

sCrypt IDE v0.4.13 lets you launch a debugger that stops right at where sCrypt test fails. This will help developers to locate contract bugs tremendously.

Previously, when a test fails using the sCrypt testing framework, error message only shows where it fails in JavaScript/TypeScript code. If a user has to find out where it fails inside the sCrypt code, he has to print out debug arguments, copy and paste them into launch.json, which is a laborious and error-prone process.

In the latest IDE, when a test fails, there are two additional lines in the error message.

• Go to Source: it shows which line fails inside sCrypt code and also the last opcode executed. Right clicking on the link will take you directly to the offending line. …

Previously, we introduced the source-level debugger in our IDE, which enables debugging at sCrypt code level. Today, we are thrilled to introduce its advanced version, which allows debugging at Script level. This would be immensely helpful for users who desire to cope directly with raw Script, e.g., for customized optimization.

More specifically, the Script-level debugger enables you to:

• Map between sCrypt and its Script output in realtime
• Set breakpoint and step in Script
• View the main and alternative stack

This is a premium feature and requires a license. To purchase a license, just send us a baemail at scrypt@moneybutton.com. For more information, please visit our IDE homepage.

Conway’s Game of Life is a fascinating zero-player game on a grid, whose evolution is determined by its initial state. Each generation is a pure function of the preceding one.

We implement the game on Bitcoin SV. Each generation evolves to a new generation when triggered by a bitcoin transaction. The game lives completely on chain. As long as there are transactions interacting with it, it lives on chain forever.

Rules

1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by needs caused by underpopulation.
2. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding. …

Recently, an attacker exploited a nuanced flaw in ElectrumSV’s newly debuted Accumulator MultiSig feature and stole large amount of bitcoins. We analyze the attack and make a few suggestions on how to mitigate such attacks in the future.

Background

Accumulator MultiSig is introduced by nChain in 2019, as an alternative of multisig based on P2SH, which has been removed from Bitcoin since Genesis. It achieves the same security and privacy features of multisig without P2SH.

In ElectrumSV’s implementation of Accumulator MultiSig, the last opcode OP_GREATERTHANOREQUAL was used where OP_LESSTHANOREQUAL should be, probably due to negligence about the ordering of operands on the stack. This means instead of demanding at least m out of n signatures to unlock an output, at most m signatures are required. …