CashScript is the high level language and toolkit used to develop smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash. The development of CashScript is funded through yearly Flipstarter crowdfunding, with the previous campaign being a full year ago. Since then we have released two new major versions of CashScript. In these updates we added debugging integration into the new Transaction Builder and added full TypeScript integration for Contract arguments. With the deliverables of last year being completed we have put forward a campaign for continued development of CashScript for the coming year.
CashScript is growing in popularity over the past years. With recent network upgrades it is also clear that the BCH community is taking smart contracts more seriously. CashScript is a crucial piece of tooling for smart contract developers on Bitcoin Cash, so we want to make sure that it has the resources it needs to continue to grow and thrive.
Overview
Over the course of our last Flipstarter, we released 11 total releases, including the major v0.11 and v0.12 releases. The big work on the debugging capabilities is now fully finished and the new Transaction Builder we introduced in v0.9.0 has now become the new default. We finished all of the deliverables we set out in our previous campaign and also addressed additional items as they came up.
Besides the planned deliverables, we also delivered these additional
features: config-free usage of the CashScript SDK with Vite or
Webpack (previously required manual configuration), first-class
WalletConnect integration and guides, .slice() syntax
for bytes and strings, improvements to the
MockNetworkProvider, insights into transaction VM
resource usage, and more.
Over the past year we have put a lot of extra effort into improved documentation and guides to make the CashScript documentation website the main reference people use to develop their smart contract applications. We have also seen increased external contributors over the past year and have put in the extra effort to integrate these suggestions and contributions, and help guide this process to a successful integration.
With the upcoming 2026 network upgrade BCH will get loops, functions, bitwise operators and P2S output types. Compared to the previous years we plan to shift a lot of our focus from the transaction building and SDK to the compiler and contract language itself to facilitate all this new smart contract functionality. The SDK is in a great place, so for CashScript the timing of the new script functionality lines up very nicely.
Deliverables
With this new Flipstarter, we plan to make 2 new releases, v0.13.0 and v0.14.0, incorporating the new features discussed under 'Scope'. As per usual we plan to release a prerelease first that can be tested by the community, before publishing the final release. We plan to have loops, bitshift operators and P2S support finalised by May 2026. Reusable functions and global constants are planned to be finalised by October 2026. We're looking for funding for the development work and maintenance for the next year (October 2025 - October 2026). The full scope of work is outlined below.
Scope
2026 is set to be a big year for Bitcoin Cash's scripting ecosystem with the introduction of loops and reusable functions. To allow a broad base of developers to use these new features, it is important to have these features available in CashScript.
We expect that most of 2026 will be focused on making sure that these new features are supported in CashScript. This will be a big undertaking so it is possible that not all of these items will be completed by the end of the year. We will prioritize the most important major items (loops & functions).
Major items
- Full support for loops
- Full support for defining and invoking reusable functions
- Rework type system to be more consistent and predictable
- Support for global constants
- Support for arrays as a first class type
Minor items
- Support for bitshift operators
- Support for P2S
- Extra utility functions to improve transaction building
- Debug tooling improvements
- Improve VS Code extension and overall developer experience
Maintenance
- Outstanding planned refactors
- Keep CashScript Playground and VS Code extension up to date
- Update testing & linting setup
- Ongoing bug fixes
Ecosystem & Education
- Telegram support
- Ecosystem support
- Documentation improvements & guides
- BCH Bliss Conference workshop + talks
Compensation
Our requested compensation for this Flipstarter is 220 BCH.
The scope of this Flipstarter is much larger than the Flipstarters of previous years, so we plan to dedicate twice as much time (on a weekly basis) as before to development and maintenance. We've adjusted the requested compensation to reflect this: in fiat terms, the compensation amount is roughly twice as much as the previous Flipstarter, in BCH terms, it is a 1.5x increase.
Every year we tend to underestimate the amount of work that is required to complete the scope of work. That is another part of the reason why we are increasing the requested compensation for this Flipstarter compared to the previous years.
The contributors fund that we introduced last year was a great success and we used the full fund to reward external contributors for their work. That's why we plan to have a contributors fund of 20 BCH this year.
- Rosco Kalis (Lead Developer): 100 BCH
- Mathieu Geukens (Developer): 100 BCH
- Contributors Fund: 20 BCH
Building the Future
Over the last year we've seen wider adoption of CashScript with multiple ambitious new projects leveraging our tooling, independent tutorials and contract challenges being created and independent workshops being organized. This increased momentum together with the upcoming BCH network upgrades further extending the smart contract capabilities puts CashScript in a unique position to bring these new capabilities to application developers.
We have the ambition to make CashScript the best tool it can be for BCH dapp developers. We have put great work into making CashScript more accessible for new developers and experienced devs alike. With this Flipstarter we want to continue the increased momentum to help create a thriving smart contract ecosystem on Bitcoin Cash.
Thank You
Thanks to everyone pledging to this Flipstarter and sharing it with others. We also want to say thank you to everyone developing with CashScript or simply being an enthusiastic supporter. We hope this fundraiser is successful so we can increase our time dedicated to improving and extending CashScript for the next year!