How do Kaspa covenants enable trustless L1-L2 bridges?

Kaspa covenants can be paired with KIP-16's zero-knowledge proof verification to move assets between Kaspa's main chain and a secondary network without relying on a trusted intermediary. A UTXO (unspent transaction output — essentially a locked coin) is governed by a covenant script that checks a ZK proof before releasing funds; that proof confirms something happened on the other chain. Because enforcement happens at the protocol level, no single party controls whether the bridge pays out. For a beginner, this matters because removing the trusted middleman is the key step toward cross-chain transfers that are governed by math rather than by promises.