Protocol for validating blockchain transactions
Abstract
A method of validating transactions for recordal in a blockchain comprises receiving one or more transactions at a node of a blockchain network. For each received transaction a protocol for validating the transaction is applied. The protocol is configured to allow a termination opcode to be included in an output script of the transaction. The termination opcode is configured to, upon being executed by the node, a) terminate execution of the output script, and b) not to invalidate the transaction based only on the inclusion of the termination opcode in the output script. The protocol is also configured to disallow any instance of the termination opcode from being included in an input script of the transaction, said disallowing comprising the node at least invalidating the transaction if any instance of the termination opcode is included in the input script.