• Blockstream is a leading Bitcoin infrastructure company, which has announced the formation of a formalized research team dedicated to advancing the platforms of Bitcoin.
• The team is working on projects like Simplicity, Miniscript, and Elements Script.
• The research team is also focused on digital signatures, Cross Input Signature Aggregation (CISA/XISA), MuSig2, Scriptless Scripts and Fedimint.
Blockstream Research Team
Blockstream is a leading Bitcoin infrastructure company that has recently announced the formation of a formalized Blockstream Research team with the aim to push the boundaries of what’s possible with Bitcoin. This team consists of 10 experienced researchers who are tackling complex problems at the core of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Projects in Progress
The Blockstream Research Team is currently working on various projects such as Simplicity, Miniscript and Elements Script. Simplicity is a more robust programming language designed as an alternative to Bitcoin Script while Miniscript provides users with safer language for writing structured scripts that enable analysis and composition. Elements Script is a set of extensions to Bitcoin Script that includes new covenant opcodes for further exploration.
Digital Signatures
The research team’s focus also extends to digital signatures where they have developed Cross Input Signature Aggregation (CISA/XISA) which allows multiple inputs in one transaction to share one signature resulting in smaller transactions and improved efficiency for the network. They have also created MuSig2 which makes multisig transactions more efficient and private at the same time.
Off-Chain Protocols
The applied research team are also exploring off-chain protocols such as Scriptless Scripts that allow smart contract execution off-chain providing improved security, privacy and scalability using Schnorr signatures while Fedimint enables deposits and withdrawals while maintaining privacy within its federation signers network.
Leading Researcher
Director of Research at Blockstream Andrew Poelstra said: “We’ve been putting out ground breaking new ideas since 2014 such as OP_CSV, covenants Segwit and Taproot but now these will be released under the Blocksteam Research umbrella.”
