I worked on a VSCode extension for Bitcoin's Minsc Programming Language

[asxndu]

Hello  everyone.

I have always had interest in Bitcoin's smart contracts support. But never actually used it since I found Bitcoin's OP codes hard to use.

Recently, I came to learn of  Minsc,  a high level language that compiles down to Bitcoin's Miniscript Policy language.

I built a Minsc VSCode extension that has support for syntax highlighting, comment toggling, autocomplete, code snippets, hover messages.  (https://github.com/as1ndu/minsc-vscode-extension)

I would like to spend more time on Minsc (probably work on a my own re-implementation of the language).


Here are some interesting use cases of smart contracts on Bitcoin;

- 2FA  wallets that cannot be hacked even when the hacker steals the seed phrase (hash locks provide 2nd factor auth)

- Personal savings wallets (use time locks to forcefully save BTC for 5, 10, 15, 20 years)

- Inheritance set-ups for your BTC using Multisig & Time locks


All this can be Bitcoin native and completely trustless using the Miniscript Policy language.

While you can already do this with the Miniscript Policy language, a higher level language to work in (like Minsc) would make it easier for developers to code up such applications.

The end goal would be something like Nunchuk, https://nunchuk.io/individuals, but that is completely free and open source. Users would easily create, share and deploy their own Scripts.

If you are interested in supporting my journey, please consider donating to my Bitcoin address  below;

bc1qnwzts827t4cvmskll849ptau7uyf3v4q5rk5k4

P.S Bitcoin address is the same in the Github repo (https://github.com/as1ndu/minsc-vscode-extension) to prove authenticity.

[ABCbits]

I don't think i'll ever need to write minsc script myself manually, but thanks for sharing.

Here are some interesting use cases of smart contracts on Bitcoin;
--snip--
All this can be Bitcoin native and completely trustless using the Miniscript Policy language.

The tough part is integrating/adding minsc script we write to wallet we use. AFAIK there's no wallet that that generate and handle address based on script you write yourself.

[BattleDog]

Nice little project. Syntax highlighting and hover help sounds boring until you've stared at raw Script long enough and started seeing opcodes in your tea. Anything that makes Miniscript less like reading a ransom note from a very strict compiler is welcome.

That said, ABCbits is right about the painful part. The editor is the comfortable chair, but the real dragon is wallet integration. If I write a policy, compile it, get a descriptor, fund it, then later need to spend from it with PSBTs, hardware signers, timelocks, recovery paths, watch-only tracking, backups, and sane error messages, that whole path has to work. Otherwise, it remains a very cool lab tool that only people with too many terminal tabs will use.

I do think Miniscript deserves more attention though. People keep saying "Bitcoin doesn't have smart contracts" because they expect Ethereum-style global state and programmable chaos. Bitcoin has a smaller, colder, meaner toolbox, but for vaults, inheritance, 2FA-ish spending paths, delayed recovery, and multisig policies, it's already powerful enough to hurt yourself properly.

A higher-level language plus proper descriptor wallet support would make that power usable without making everyone hand-carve Script like it's 2013.