Misha Komarov, founder of the cryptographic research firm alloc init, presented this April 29 at the Bitcoin 2026 event in Las Vegas a technology called PIPEs v2.
The proposal seeks to resolve two limitations of Bitcoin: the impossibility of programming advanced spending conditions without modifying the protocol, and the difficulty of integrating zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proofs), cryptographic proofs that allow you to verify that something is true without revealing the underlying information, directly in mainnet transactions.
The stated limitations originate from the Bitcoin programming language, which is deliberately simple and supports some basic spending conditionssuch as blocking funds until a certain date (the mechanism that inheritance wallets use to transfer bitcoin to a beneficiary after the owner’s death).
That simplicity leads to more complex conditions, such as releasing funds only if an arbitrary cryptographic test is met, not possible without modifying the protocol rules. Some developers, like those behind PIPEs v2, are committed to expanding this programmability without touching the consensus.
How does PIPEs v2 work in Bitcoin?
Every transaction in Bitcoin requires a digital signature, produced with a private key that only the owner of the funds knows. PIPEs v2 acts precisely on this point. Instead of asking Bitcoin to check an additional condition (something the protocol cannot do without being modified), PIPEs v2 Cryptographically locks the private key behind a predefined conditionaccording to your technical documentpublished last February.
The mechanism that makes this blocking possible is called token encryption (witness encryption), a cryptographic scheme that encrypts the signing key so that it can only be recovered if the person attempting to spend the funds can demonstrate that the stated condition is met.
If the condition is satisfied, the key is released and the signing can occur. If not, it is mathematically infeasible. From Bitcoin’s perspective, the transaction looks like any other: a standard signature under a standard public key.
Regarding the integration of zero-knowledge proofs into Bitcoin transactions, they would be used, for example, to verify that a user meets an eligibility condition without disclosing what that condition is and without the main network having to do that work. Token encryption would solve it off-chain.
Handan Kılınç Alper, cryptographer and researcher on the team that created PIPEs v2, summarized the principle that supports the approach:
If signature validity is the only condition that Bitcoin verifies, then the most powerful spending policy we can implement without modifying the protocol is one that controls whether a valid signature can be generated.
Handan Kılınç Alper, cryptographer at alloc init.
On the other hand, and after the presentationPeter Todd, one of the historical developers of Bitcoin Core, commented: “Never underestimate lunar mathematics.” The expression, which in the cryptocurrency ecosystem alludes to developments that seem impossible until they are proven viablesummarizes the problems that, in Todd’s vision, PIPEs v2 must overcome, since it would be a mathematically sound proposal whose practical viability at scale has yet to be demonstrated.
What is PIPEs v2 for in practice?
According to its document, the PIPEs v2 mechanism opens the door to use cases that today require modifications to the protocol or more complex mechanisms.
The most specific are security vaults (vaults in English). These are contracts that allow funds to be locked with strict withdrawal conditions, such as requiring cryptographic proof or a waiting period, without anyone being able to move them before that condition is met. It would also enable controlled outputs of second layer (L2) protocols, such as Lightning Network (LN).
However, according to the alloc init team, PIPEs v2 is currently research in progress. The current execution cost is between USD 100 and USD 200 per operation in cloud computing infrastructure, viable for high value cases but not for everyday usewhile the team works on optimization techniques that could reduce it.