The Goal:
Raw Bitcoin Script is notoriously difficult to reason about. Writing raw Bitcoin Script today feels like writing Assembly in the 1970s. You have to mentally juggle the stack (`OP_SWAP`, `OP_ROT`), manually manage distinct execution branches, and pray you didn't leave a stack item unconsumed (which crashes the script). My goal was to bridge the gap between complex contract logic and raw opcodes, allowing developers to write readable, compile-time-safe code.
Key Features:
- Imperative Syntax: Write logic using familiar if/else and return statements instead of mental stack juggling.
- Type Safety: First-class support for bool, signature, string, and number types to prevent runtime errors.
- Targeted Compilation: Support for Legacy, SegWit, and Taproot compilation targets.
- Native Primitives: Built-in keywords for timelocks (older, after) and cryptography (sha256, checksig).
You can try it in the browser here (runs via WASM): https://bithoven-lang.github.io/bithoven/ide/
Here is an example of a Hashed Time-Locked Contract (HTLC):
(condition: bool, sig_alice: signature)
(condition: bool, preimage: string, sig_bob: signature)
{
if condition {
// Relative locktime (Sequence)
older 1000;
return checksig (sig_alice, alice_pk);
} else {
// Hashlock verification
verify sha256 sha256 preimage == hash;
return checksig (sig_bob, bob_pk);
}
}
Even if limited nature, there are many applications of smart contract like hashed-time lock contract, inheritance and multisig contract! You can see examples: https://github.com/ChrisCho-H/bithoven/tree/main/example
I would be glad to anyone who would add example bithoven code!