LibraryPrivacy2021Design paperCorpus record
Output Script Descriptors General Operation
BIP 380. Pieter Wuille.
BIP 380, Output Script Descriptors General Operation. Output Script Descriptors are a simple language which can be used to describe collections of output scripts.
Status in the source: Deployed. A reading of the public specification, not a copy of it and not a certification.
Output Script Descriptors General Operation is worth reading for the rule it actually adds: Output Script Descriptors are a simple language which can be used to describe collections of output scripts.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 3
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- BIP 380https://bips.dev/380
- The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
- Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
- Add to a reading list
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The rule
Output Script Descriptors are a simple language which can be used to describe collections of output scripts.
Claim 02 · Paper model
What was already failing
A signature that does not commit to what the user saw can be replayed into a different spend, a different chain, or a different message.
Claim 03 · Paper model
What the number does not mean
The source marks this deployed. That is a statement about the text, not a promise that every wallet or node has shipped it.
Claim 04 · Paper model
What a builder should be able to point at
An implementation either constrains Output Script Descriptors General Operation or it is a different design.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The rule
Observation
What the study says
Output Script Descriptors are a simple language which can be used to describe collections of output scripts.
Model
What has to hold
The object that has to change is Output Script Descriptors General Operation. A neighbouring document with a similar name is not this one.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Which primitive does the text require: Output Script Descriptors General Operation?
02 What was already failing
Observation
What the study says
A signature that does not commit to what the user saw can be replayed into a different spend, a different chain, or a different message.
Model
What has to hold
The object that has to change is Output Script Descriptors General Operation. A neighbouring document with a similar name is not this one.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Can the same signature be replayed on another chain, account, or message?
03 What the number does not mean
Observation
What the study says
The source marks this deployed. That is a statement about the text, not a promise that every wallet or node has shipped it.
Model
What has to hold
You are implementing BIP 380 at the status the text itself states: Deployed.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Which primitive does the text require: Output Script Descriptors General Operation?
04 What a builder should be able to point at
Observation
What the study says
An implementation either constrains Output Script Descriptors General Operation or it is a different design.
Model
What has to hold
The object that has to change is Output Script Descriptors General Operation. A neighbouring document with a similar name is not this one.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What is covered by the signed bytes in Output Script Descriptors General Operation?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01Open BIP 380 and read the status line before the examples.
- 02Write down the rule in one sentence. A fair version of that sentence is: Output Script Descriptors are a simple language which can be used to describe collections of output scripts.
- 03Name the object that changes: Output Script Descriptors General Operation.
- 04Ask what an old client, an old contract, or an offline counterparty does. If the document is silent, the silence is part of the design.
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
What the text is allowed to settle
The cut
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 380 can settle the shape of Output Script Descriptors General Operation. It cannot settle whether a later client, a later fork, or a later wallet still does this.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
What this page will not pretend
The cut
There is no benchmark, no adoption number, and no claim that the mechanism is safe outside the assumptions written in the source.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
The source marks this deployed. That is a statement about the text, not a promise that every wallet or node has shipped it.
05 Register
What has to be true
Model · Not re-measured
You are implementing BIP 380 at the status the text itself states: Deployed.
Model · Not re-measured
The object that has to change is Output Script Descriptors General Operation. A neighbouring document with a similar name is not this one.
Model · Not re-measured
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
The source marks this deployed. That is a statement about the text, not a promise that every wallet or node has shipped it. Later documents can narrow, replace, or ignore this one. Cite the number you mean.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
A signature that does not commit to what the user saw can be replayed into a different spend, a different chain, or a different message.
What the design proposes
- Output Script Descriptors are a simple language which can be used to describe collections of output scripts.
- There can be many different descriptor fragments and functions.
- This document describes the general syntax for descriptors, descriptor checksums, and common expressions.
How the mechanism is specified
- Taken from the specification, the next constraint is: There can be many different descriptor fragments and functions.
- Locate Output Script Descriptors General Operation in BIP 380 and apply it to one transaction or call.
- Then check the failure the class of rule always has: a node that did not upgrade, a reverted call, a replayed signature, or a peer that does not speak the message.
What this page does not treat as proven
Why the desk still reads it
Use BIP 380 when a pitch says 'Output Script Descriptors General Operation' without saying whether the rule is consensus, policy, or an interface. The number is the citation. The pitch is not.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- BIP 380
- The public text titled Output Script Descriptors General Operation.
- Deployed
- The document's own label for how finished the text is. It is not a market fact.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.