BCH to beef up smart contract capabilities: ‘VM Limits’ and ‘BigInts’ upgrades gain support

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) developers and community members have been actively voicing their support for two Cash Improvement Proposals (CHIPs) ahead of a November 15 lock-in deadline. The “VM Limits” (Virtual Machine Limits) and “BigInts” (Big Integers) CHIPs seek to streamline smart contract capabilities onchain for the Bitcoin Cash network and enable more possibilities for developers to build on the protocol. 

The Bitcoin Cash Foundation, an officially unofficial representative of BCH seeking to promote peer-to-peer electronic cash for the world, recently voiced support on X on November 10, for two Bitcoin Cash improvement proposals.

The two Cash Improvement Proposals (CHIPs), which seek to streamline and expand smart contract capabilities on Bitcoin Cash, are seeing support on multiple fronts from devs and community members ahead of a November 15 “lock-in” deadline. Once locked in, the proposed changes would be activated during the May 2025 Bitcoin Cash network upgrade.

VM Limits and BigInts — Two proposed upgrades for Bitcoin Cash

First, it may be necessary to point out that Bitcoin Cash already has functioning UTXO (unspent transaction output)-based smart contract capabilities, allowing for smart contracts to be executed on-chain. This was made possible via the CashTokens CHIP back in 2023.

Thanks to the smart contract capability, BCH now enjoys NFTs, contracts baked into the layer 1 protocol, on-chain DEX (decentralized exchange) capability and an efficiency advantage which devs say could leave Ethereum a day late and a satoshi short.

The two CHIPs gaining support for the 2025 network upgrade are:

• CHIP-2021-05 VM Limits: Targeted Virtual Machine Limits
• CHIP-2024-07 BigInt: High-Precision Arithmetic for Bitcoin Cash

These two dovetailing proposals aim to make smart contracts on BCH much more efficient, and to render “previously-theoretical use cases immediately practical.” So what are the use cases?

According to BCH and former BitPay developer Jason Dreyzehner, they include: “more advanced automated market making and exchange protocols, decentralized stablecoins, collateralized loan protocols, cross-chain and sidechain bridges, zero-knowledge proofs, post-quantum cryptography, homomorphic encryption, and more.”

2025 BCH upgrade proposals see massive community support, with some caveats

Joining the Bitcoin Cash Foundation in support of the VM Limits and BigInts CHIPs is General Protocols, the company behind the decentralized hedging and trading app BCH Bull.

General Protocols initially had some reservations about the 2025 CHIPs, as they were relative latecomers to the table compared to previous proposals.

“The Bigints proposal was announced later than most other CHIP precedents in a barebones form, which did cause concern for us as we expressed in our previous assessment,” the firm stated on a blog post. General Protocols pointed to extraordinary circumstances this time around, and concluded: “In our opinion both CHIPs have met the bars for rigor established in previous years, and are now in sufficiently good shape for inclusion together.”

However, the company also clarified: “This endorsement shall not be taken as an endorsement for latecoming proposals in general.” There has also been some noteworthy dissent on GitHub in recent weeks by a prominent node operator and respected community member.

That said, in large part, even those initially skeptical have come to officially support integration of the CHIPs in May, after review. Supporters include Bitcoin Verde, The Bitcoin Cash Podcast, Bitcoin.com, and numerous others.