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A transaction output can have the type

  • Pay to public key hash, P2PKH, where the ScriptPubKey field has the format:

    76 a9 14 <20-byte hash of pubkey> 88 ac

  • Pay to script hash, P2SH, used for e.g. multisig:

    a9 14 <20-byte hash of script> 87

There is also something called P2WPKH and P2WSH. Can you show me how these outputs are formatted, and are there any more possible output formats than these four?

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AFAIK there are 5 different standard non-SegWit transaction types, and 4 SegWit ones.

Non-SegWit:

Pay to public key (P2PK)

PUSH (1 byte) + <compressed/uncompressed_pk> (33/65 bytes) + OP_CHECKSIG (1 byte)

Pay to public key hash (P2PKH)

OP_DUP (1 byte) + OP_HASH160 (1 byte) + PUSH (1 byte) + <hash_160(PK)> (20 bytes) + OP_EQUALVERIFY (1 byte) + OP_CHECKSIG (1 byte)

Multisig (P2MS)

<number_of_PKs> (1 byte) PUSH (1 byte) <PK_0> (33/65 bytes) PUSH (1 byte) <PK_1> (33/65 bytes)  ... PUSH (1 byte) <PK_n-1> (33/65 bytes) OP_CHECKMULTISIG (1 byte)

P2MS allow up to 15-15 scripts, however only up to 3-3 are standard.

Pay to script hash (P2SH)

OP_HASH160 (1 byte) + PUSH (1 byte) + <hash160(redeem_script)> (20 bytes) + OP_EQUAL (1 byte)

OP_Return

OP_RETURN (1 byte) PUSH (1 byte) <0 to 83 bytes of data>

SegWit:

Regarding segwit types, there are two non-native and two native ones.

Native Pay to witness public key hash (P2WPKH)

OP_0 (1 byte) PUSH (1 byte) <hash 160(PK*)> (20 bytes)

Native Pay to witness script hash (P2WSH)

OP_0 (1 byte) PUSH (1 byte) <script_hash> (32 bytes)

Pay to witness public key hash encapsulated in a pay to script hash (P2SH-P2WPKH)

The redeem script follows the same structure than native P2WPKH:

redeem_script = OP_0 (1 byte) PUSH (1 byte) <hash_160(PK*)> (20 bytes)

While the external structure of the script (scriptPubKey) is as any other P2SH:

OP_HASH160 (1 byte) + PUSH (1 byte) + <hash_160(redeeem_script)> (20 bytes) + OP_EQUAL (1 byte)

Pay to witness script hash encapsulated in a pay to script hash (P2SH-P2WSH)

The redeem script follows the same structure than native P2WSH:

redeem_script = OP_0 (1 byte) PUSH (1 byte) <script_hash> (32 bytes)

While the external structure of the script (scriptPubKey) is as any other P2SH:

OP_HASH160 (1 byte) + PUSH (1 byte) + <hash_160(redeeem_script)> (20 bytes) + OP_EQUAL (1 byte)

*In P2WPKH scripts the hash 160 should correspond to a compressed public key, otherwise the funds will be lost.

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  • Thank you. But I do not understand your last sentence: "Non-native pay to witness script hash encapsulated in a pay to script hash (P2SH-P2WPKH) have the same structure." Can you elaborate on that? As far as I understood, non-native segwit outputs are indistinguishable from P2SH-outputs.
    – Thorkil Værge
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 16:42
  • What I ment is that in P2SH-P2WPKH the redeem script follows the structure of the native P2WPKH and in the P2SH-P2WSH the redeem script follows the structure of the native P2WSH. I'll edit it for clarification.
    – sr_gi
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 19:43
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    Reviewing the answer I realized that the OP_Return script was not up to date. The max amount of data to be pushed is 83 bytes since Bitcoin Core 0.12. I've updated the answer to correct it.
    – sr_gi
    Commented Apr 20, 2018 at 9:36
  • Could this answer be updated with P2TR outputs?
    – Thorkil Værge
    Commented Jul 21, 2021 at 8:33

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