Proposed script constraints that restrict how coins may be spent in later transactions, enabling vaults and new protocols but adding complexity.
Bitcoin covenants is best understood as part of a system rather than as an isolated definition. Its related coordinates show the mechanisms, incentives and historical records that give the term practical meaning.
Bitcoin covenants sits between protocol rules, economic incentives and software operated by independent participants. In Bitcoin, no component is authoritative by itself: miners propose history, fully validating nodes enforce validity, and users decide which rules and software they accept.
Understanding Bitcoin covenants helps distinguish a verifiable Bitcoin mechanism or historical record from slogans, products and market narratives.
For the clearest picture, read this entry together with Bitcoin Script, Bitcoin vault, OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY. The reverse links also lead from OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY, Bitcoin vault.
Linked to related atlas coordinates
Grounded in a source record
Explains function and trade-offs
Part of the open Bitcoin knowledge graph