BTC Ecosystem Expansion Plan Progress

Since the beginning of 2024, the BTC ecosystem has made rapid progress on the technical level, especially in programmable scaling solutions. This article will introduce several highly anticipated BTC scaling solutions.

Fractal

Fractal is a scalable framework based on the virtualization of the Bitcoin Core client software. It recursively creates a tree structure, where each layer of the blockchain can enhance the overall performance of the network. Fractal is fully compatible with Bitcoin and its infrastructure, but activates the op_cat operator, allowing for more logic to be implemented.

Fractal is developed by a certain wallet team and is expected to launch its mainnet in September 2024. Its tokenomics includes 50% generated from mining, 15% for the ecosystem, 5% for early investor presales, 20% for advisors and core contributors, and 10% for establishing partnerships and liquidity.

Fractal encapsulates Bitcoin Core into a deployable blockchain software package through virtualization technology and recursively anchors it on the Bitcoin mainnet. It makes some modifications to Bitcoin Core, such as shortening block confirmation times and increasing block sizes. Assets can be transferred between different layers through decentralized bridging.

Fractal has introduced a joint mining mechanism to enhance security. The impact on BTC miners is key to Fractal's success, and its token economy will lean towards the miners.

AVM

AVM is the BTC smart contract implementation of a certain atomic protocol. It creates a virtual machine that simulates BTC scripts, opening up multiple BTC original opcodes, allowing developers to implement smart contracts through combinations of Bitcoin scripts.

AVM achieves Turing completeness through dual stack PDA. It includes the complete BTC opcode, allowing developers to program using the unused features of BTC. AVM is suitable for various metadata protocols, requiring only slight adjustments to the indexer.

OP_NET

OP_NET aims to introduce smart contract functionality similar to Ethereum, but more aligned with the characteristics of Bitcoin. It retains Bitcoin's block consensus and data availability, performing complex calculations on Bitcoin blocks through the execution of the virtual machine OP_VM.

OP_NET supports multiple programming languages, and the smart contract code is written into BTC transactions after being compressed. Users need to pay additional fees to interact with the contract. OP_NET provides a Proof of Authority system that allows BTC to be wrapped as WBTC.

The OP_NET ecosystem covers multiple areas including decentralized trading, lending, market making, and several projects have already gone live.

BRC100

BRC-100 is a decentralized computing protocol built on the Ordinals theory. It achieves complex DeFi functionalities through the addition of operations such as mint2/mint3 and burn2/burn3.

BRC-100 can be functionally extended through expansion protocols, and all expansion protocols are mutually compatible. Currently, there are expansion protocols such as BRC-101, BRC-102, and BRC-104, which respectively implement on-chain governance, automated liquidity, and liquid staking functionalities.

The BRC-100 ecosystem already has projects such as inBRC, 100Swap, and 100Layer that are either launched or in development.

Programmable Runes

Programmable runes are an extension layer of runes, allowing for the creation of programmable assets with runes. The Proto-Runes Protocol is the main project among them, providing a framework for programmable runes.

The Proto-Runes Protocol converts runes into programmable forms called Protorunes through the Protoburn mechanism. Protomessage is used to execute operational instructions within sub-protocols. The entire protocol is processed in sequence by the indexer for the messages of each sub-protocol.

The first Protorune has completed Protoburn, and the development team is working on a WASM indexer to enable features such as on-chain governance.