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Author Topic: Help needed spending non-standard multisig outputs from Counterparty transaction  (Read 746 times)
nutildah (OP)
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May 26, 2026, 10:00:54 PM
Merited by LoyceV (6)
 #21

I think I can see the problem: if a public key starts from 02 or 03, then it is just a multisig. But if it starts from anything else than that, and there is some 32-byte value, then it is non-standard, and you won't get it mined, without some support from the miners.
...
See the difference? When Bitcoin Core will tell you "nonstandard", instead of "multisig", then it means you won't get that kind of multisig, without the help from some miners. Which also means, that mempool.space marks it differently than Bitcoin Core, and shows MULTISIG in cases, where maybe it shouldn't.

These types of transaction are referred to as "fake multisig" in Counterparty terminology because none of them are actually multisig, they just label themselves that way for the sake of storing Counterparty protocol-related data when OP_RETURN isn't big enough.

Something interesting I learned is that Core's policy about this must have changed at some point, because in October 2014 I consolidated several outputs whose public keys start with "20" or something other than "02" or "03". I'm pretty sure this transaction would not be accepted by most mining pools now:

https://mempool.space/tx/d002938e1f7c99690392df5a82b5301c76985547cfa2fdb5ce49ff0453c46a9d#vin=15

(you can follow any input back to its fake multisig parent transaction)

This shift in policy is probably what the owner of redeem.bitwatch was referring to when he said this:

Some transactions from Counterparty were created with invalid public keys and are no longer redeemable.

See also: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/5939

I also learned that Counterparty stopped storing data this way in December 2014, possibly due to pressure from Luke.

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nc50lc
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May 27, 2026, 03:38:46 AM
Merited by LoyceV (6), ABCbits (2)
 #22

Something interesting I learned is that Core's policy about this must have changed at some point, because in October 2014 I consolidated several outputs whose public keys start with "20" or something other than "02" or "03".
In case you need more research material on that:
This user has posted a pretty good timeline of MultiSig upgrades throughout the reference client's history, including the relevant PRs.
Github post: github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/33882#issuecomment-3537392532

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nutildah (OP)
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May 29, 2026, 02:47:45 AM
Merited by LoyceV (4)
 #23

This user has posted a pretty good timeline of MultiSig upgrades throughout the reference client's history, including the relevant PRs.
Github post: github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/33882#issuecomment-3537392532

It sounds like I'm definitely being affected by this issue:

Quote
PR #5247; merged 2014-11-21
The inconsistency between mempool policy execution of script and consensus execution of script is resolved by failing SCRIPT_VERIFY_STRICTENC standardness whenever a pubkeys processed by CHECK*SIG is non-canonical.

This accidently causes in-use pre-counterparty-1.0-like legacy multiscript UTXO's to be soft-confiscated. e.g. 4dacd03d73cb497229dbfe2e7209adc4221540efe0e4c57f408b09b2fd36ece6:1 from 2014-01-12. The effect of soft-confiscating existing UTXO seems to have been inadvertent and wasn't contemplated in this PR.

This policy only applies to redemption, not creation of outputs. Standardness rules still allow creating transactions with legacy script outputs with non-canonical keys.

The example transaction is similar to the ones that have outputs I can't move. Since they use the words "soft confiscated," I'm wondering if that means they are permanently unspendable, and I couldn't spend them even through a mining pool that accepts non-standard transactions.

I made a script to quickly spend the outputs that were spendable and am turning it into an application for Counterparty users.

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    FAST    🔒 SECURE    🛡️ NO KYC        EXCHANGE NOW      
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nc50lc
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May 29, 2026, 03:47:43 AM
 #24

The example transaction is similar to the ones that have outputs I can't move. Since they use the words "soft confiscated," I'm wondering if that means they are permanently unspendable, and I couldn't spend them even through a mining pool that accepts non-standard transactions.
Aside from the wording "soft",
Those terms: "standardness" and "policy" means that it not consensus invalid but only non-standard.

However, this is solely based from that post and haven't confirmed with actual reproduction yet.
Theoretically, it's possible to reproduce this in RegTest with the right tools or TestNet4 if you can solo mine a block.

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Will Bitcoin hit $200,000
before January 1st 2027?

    No @1.15         Yes @6.00    
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LoyceV
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May 29, 2026, 07:11:14 PM
 #25

Theoretically, it's possible to reproduce this in RegTest with the right tools or TestNet4 if you can solo mine a block.
Finding your own block on Testnet4 shouldn't be too difficult, right? Just disconnect your internet and wait 20 minutes. It won't be accepted by the rest of the network, but that doesn't matter for testing purposes.

¡uʍop ǝpᴉsdn pɐǝɥ ɹnoʎ ɥʇᴉʍ ʎuunɟ ʞool no⅄
nc50lc
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Today at 04:19:08 AM
 #26

Finding your own block on Testnet4 shouldn't be too difficult, right? Just disconnect your internet and wait 20 minutes. It won't be accepted by the rest of the network, but that doesn't matter for testing purposes.
Actually, I mentioned testnet4 for him to test its propagation, that's if he already has a miner.
Otherwise, if it's just including it to a block to test if it's allowed by the consensus rules, RegTest should be enough.

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.
.WHERE EVERYTHING IS A MARKET..
█████
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Will Bitcoin hit $200,000
before January 1st 2027?

    No @1.15         Yes @6.00    
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