BIP 124: Hierarchical Deterministic Script Templates

Also known as: BIP124, BIP-0124.

In plain English: Defines a template format that lets wallets automatically generate scripts with specific spending rules, such as multisignature, from HD wallet keys. Shared templates help different wallets produce matching addresses for the same arrangement of keys.

Status

Closed

Type

Informational

Layer

Applications

Authors

Eric Lombrozo, William Swanson

Assigned

2015-11-20

Last changed

2025-10-08

Topics

Wallets

Source

bip-0124.mediawiki on GitHub · Markdown

Full specification

Abstract

This BIP defines a script template format that can be used by wallets to deterministically generate scripts with specific authorization policies using the key derivation mechanism defined in BIP32.

Motivation

Currently existing wallets typically issue scripts in only a tiny handful of widely used formats. The most popular formats are pay-to-pubkey-hash and m-of-n pay-to-script-hash (BIP16). However, different wallets tend to use mutually incompatible derivation schemes to generate signing keys and construct scripts from them. Moreover, with the advent of hashlocked and timelocked contracts (BIP65, BIP112), it is necessary for different wallets to be able to cooperatively generate even more sophisticated scripts.

In addition, there's a lot of ongoing work in the development of multilayered protocols that use the blockchain as a settlement layer (i.e. the Lightning Network). These efforts require sufficiently generalized templates to allow for rapidly evolving script designs.

This BIP provides a generalized format for constructing a script template that guarantees that different wallets will all produce the same scripts for a given set of derivation paths according to BIP32.

Specification

Keys

An individual key is determined by a BIP32 derivation path and an index. For convenience, we introduce the following notation:

A_k = (derivation path for A)/k

Key Groups

Let m_i denote distinct BIP32 derivation paths. We define a key group of n keys as a set of key derivation paths with a free index k:

{K_k} = { m₁/k, m₂/k, m₃/k, ..., m_n/k }

Key groups are useful for constructing scripts that are symmetric in a set of keys. Scripts are symmetric in a set of keys if the semantics of the script is unaffected by permutations of the keys. Key groups enforce a canonical form and can improve privacy.

Sorting

We define a lexicographic sorting of the keys. (TODO: specification of sorting conventions - compressed pubkeys, encoding, etc...)

Define {K_k}_j to be the jth element of the sorted keys for derivation index k.

Script Templates

We construct script templates by inserting placeholders for data into a script. To denote a placeholder, we use the following notation:

Script(A) = opcodes [A] opcodes

We extend this notation to an arbitrary number of placeholders:

Script(X1, X2, ..., Xn) = opcodes [X1] opcodes [X2] opcodes ... opcodes [Xn] opcodes

We introduce the following convenient notation for sorted key groups:

[{K_k}] = [{K_k}₁] [{K_k}₂] ... [{K_k}_n]

Operations on Keys

In some applications, we might want to insert the result of some operation performed on a key rather than the key itself into the script. For example, we might want to insert a Hash160 of key A_k. We can use the following notation:

[Hash160(A_k)]

Encoding

TODO

Examples

2-of-3 Multisig

The script template is defined by:

Script(X) = 2 [X] 3 OP_CHECKMULTISIG

Letting K_k = { m₁/k, m₂/k, m₃/k }, the kth script for this key group is denoted by Script({K_k}).

1-of-1 or 2-of-3

The script template is defined by:

Script(A, B) =
        OP_DUP [A] OP_CHECKSIG
        OP_NOTIF
                2 [B] 3 OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY
        OP_NOTIF
        OP_ENDIF
        OP_TRUE

Let M_k = m/k be a key of a superuser that can authorize all transactions and {K_k} be a key group of three users that can only authorize transactions if at least two of them agree.

The kth script is given by Script(M_k, {K_k}).

Timelocked Contract

The output is payable to Alice immediately if she knows the private key for A_k. Bob must know the private key for B_k and also wait for a timeout t before being able to spend the output.

The script template is defined by:

Script(A, B, T) =
        OP_IF
                OP_DUP OP_HASH160 [Hash160(A)] OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG
        OP_ELSE
                [T] OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY OP_DROP
                OP_DUP OP_HASH160 [Hash160(B)] OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG
        OP_ENDIF

The kth script with timeout t is given by Script(A_k, B_k, t).

References

• BIP16 - Pay to Script Hash

• BIP32 - Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets

• BIP65 - OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY

• BIP112 - CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY

• Lightning Network Whitepaper

Copyright

This document is placed in the public domain.