BitVM’s goal is to scale Bitcoin, not be a pseudo-Ethereum, says dev

October 12, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Altcoins

Building a decentralized exchange on Bitcoin would be a “step backward,” for example, said Bitcoin developer Super Testnet.

One of the developers working on “BitVM” — a Bitcoin-based virtual machine — reiterates the tech is intended to scale Bitcoin rather than launching Ethereum-like decentralized finance applications on the network.

BitVM’s whitepaper was released by ZeroSync’s project lead Robin Linus on Oct. 10 with technical support provided by pseudonymous developer “Super Testnet” — implementing BitVM’s first proof-of-concept and working on expanding BitVM’s capabilities.

Upon its release, some industry pundits formed the impression that BitVM would bring DeFi to Bitcoin like what the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) did for Ethereum.

Lightning also fall short in the scaling department. It's nowhere near solving scalability.
We need more complementary things.

> this is just another defi on bitcoin attempt.

Again, the motivation behind BitVM by the author was not DeFi. It was scaling.
— Hampus (@hampus_s) October 12, 2023

However, Super Testnet tells Cointelegraph that BitVM is scaling-focused rather than being about implementing smart contracts and an avalanche of altcoins:

“The real killer app is scaling Bitcoin. [Robin Linus isn’t] a big fan of smart contracts. He's not a big fan of increasing Bitcoin's expressivity. He really is interested in making it so that Bitcoin can process millions of transactions per second.”

Super Testnet said he doesn’t want BitVM to be flooded with (EVM)-like tokens because it’ll bring bad actors to Bitcoin:

“I don't want to see everything from the Ethereum ecosystem because most of it is Ponzi schemes.”

Building a decentralized exchange on Bitcoin would be a “step backward,” he added.

Meanwhile, Super Testnet notes that BitVM won’t be an “instant death” for Ethereum’s altcoins, which some have suggested — though it could take demand away from them.

Hot Off the Press: BitVM White Paper Drops! Experience a groundbreaking computing approach for smart contracts on #Bitcoin

Unlock functionalities previously assumed to demand a soft fork with these enhanced smart contracts.

Could this be the end of #altcoins? pic.twitter.com/1GA43VE7If
— RichQuack (@RichQuack) October 10, 2023

The developer hopes that Bitcoin (BTC) essentially remains the only monetary unit on the Bitcoin network:

“A big property that makes Bitcoin important is maintaining one monetary asset that everyone can agree on instead of having floating exchange rates that are a burden for commerce,” he said.

BitVM could patch up one of Lightning’s flaws

Meanwhile, Super Testnet said BitVM’s intended payment infrastructure will also aim to improve one of the Lightning Network’s shortfalls — payment reliability.

“Lightning is wonderful as a system and it's much faster than probably anything we can make on Bitcoin. But one thing that Lightning doesn't do well is payment reliability.”

River, a Bitcoin-only exchange, revealed its Lightning payments success rate was 99.7% in August across 308,000 transactions.

He hopes BitVM can reach 60% of the transaction speed of the Lightning network.

BitVM: The 24 hour update.

After thousands of Twitter posts and hours of spaces and discussions, we know much more about BitVM than we did yesterday. Here’s a quick update:

Excitement

1. BitVM is a new computing paradigm that leverages the universal gate NAND (along with other… pic.twitter.com/zBws7gOhjA
— Bob Bodily, PhD | #BTC #ETH #ICP (@BobBodily) October 11, 2023

The developer has also stressed that BitVM is optional like the Lightning Network and anyone will be able to transfer BTC or Bitcoin-assets out of the virtual machine back into cold storage or wherever they were beforehand.

“No one is forcing you to send your money into a virtual machine. If you want your money safe, keep it safe.”

'Compute anything' misconception

Super Testnet also clarified a possible misunderstanding, explaining that BitVM, in its current state, cannot compute “anything” like its whitepaper suggests.

“We have to build more primitives in order to make it so that anything can run in it.” Implementing SHA-256 and encryption are some of the additions that need to be made, they noted.

However, Super Testnet revealed on Oct. 12 that BitVM is already processing basic functions:

Update: bitvm can perform *3* functions now and I'm in the middle of making a webpage where you can play with it pic.twitter.com/bXYOZKx2GV
— Super Testnet (@super_testnet) October 12, 2023

Linus and Super Testnet met at a Bitcoin conference around 18 months ago and have been working to scale Bitcoin at the scripting level almost ever since, he said.

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Stellar joins Bytecode Alliance to help develop EVM alternative Wasm

August 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Stellar joined the industry group developing Wasm, an alternative computation engine for running smart contracts.

The Stellar Development Foundation has joined the Bytecode Alliance, an industry group promoting the development of WebAssembly (Wasm), according to an Aug. 21 announcement. Wasm is a competitor to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) used by the Ethereum ecosystem. It is also used in non-blockchain, browser-based applications.

We are officially members of @bytecodeallies! Our goal? To shape the future and development of WebAssembly for blockchain developers.

Time to get to work https://t.co/MBLkWoNlDl
— Stellar (@StellarOrg) August 21, 2023

EVM is a virtual machine or computation engine used to execute smart contracts. It is used by most blockchain networks, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche and many others. But a few networks use Wasm instead, including Polkadot, MultiversX (formerly Elrond) and Internet Computer.

Stellar began as a payments network in 2014. But in 2022, it implemented smart contracts to provide more functionality to the network. In April 2022, Stellar developers chose Wasm as their computation engine. They argued that despite the popularity of EVM, its “storage and execution models are expensive and challenging to parallelize,” which “gets in the way of scalability,” making transactions more expensive.

Stellar also argued that Wasm was perfect for “extremely adversarial” environments like blockchains, as it was originally developed for browser applications. This was another reason the team chose Wasm over EVM.

But much of the development work for Wasm is produced by the Bytecode Alliance, a nonprofit organization made up of internet companies such as Amazon, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft and others. When Stellar chose Wasm as its computation engine, Internet Computer developer Dfinity was the only member of the alliance representing a blockchain network.

In its Aug. 21 announcement, Stellar argued that joining the Bytecode Alliance was a “no-brainer,” as it would allow the team to “influence standards and tooling” within the Wasm development community. The team emphasized that its goal was to not only represent Stellar but to “advocate for all of blockchain and its developers.” According to Stellar, its participation in the organization will help the alliance support the needs of Web3 and blockchain developers:

“This influence ensures that the Alliance considers the unique needs of blockchain and non-web use cases, moving the Wasm ecosystem towards accommodating and supporting a broader range of applications, like [...] Smart contract platforms.”

The Wasm community continues to make inroads into the EVM-dominated Web3 world. On April 3, the Astar network announced that it would allow both EVM and Wasm contracts to be deployed on the same network, allowing developers to use either virtual machine. Astar labeled the event “Wasm launch day.” On Aug. 22, Binance announced it would provide $2.2 million in funding for a zero-knowledge proof application platform using Wasm called “zkWASMHub.”

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Cardano ecosystem set to expand with custom-built sidechains

January 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Basho

The toolkit will allow for creators of sidechains to choose their own consensus mechanism and other application-specific features, whilst inheriting the security of the main chain.

Input Output Global (IOG) — the team behind the Cardano ecosystem — will release a software toolkit in late Jan. 2023 that will enable developers to deploy custom-built sidechains on Cardano aimed at improving the ecosystem.

The news was announced by IOHK — a blockchain engineering company founded by Charles Hoskinson and now known as IOG — on Jan.12, which also attached the official technical documentation for the sidechain toolkit.

⛓️ The #Cardano sidechain toolkit was previewed at #IOScotFest, and we’re happy to share the first iteration is out now.

Here’s the lowdown on this exciting new project! https://t.co/Ny9tQuJh5K
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) January 12, 2023

IOG developers have already used the toolkit to construct an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible sidechain public testnet as a “proof of concept,” and when the audit is complete, anyone will be able to deploy decentralized applications, create smart contracts and move tokens between different testing chains.

The toolkit will also enable the creators of the sidechains to choose their own consensus mechanism in addition to other application-specific features.

*A diagram of how value and data will be transferred between the Cardano main chain and custom-built sidechains. Source:* *Cardano.org.*

A sidechain is an independent blockchain that works adjacent to the parent blockchain, often referred to as the mainnet. Sidechains often attempt to add scalability to the mainnet which often prioritizes decentralization and security.

IOG hopes the sidechain development will “pave the way for mass adoption” on the Cardano ecosystem and “hopes to see a family of Cardano sidechains and partner chains emerging” in the near future.

Among the “partner chains” Hoskinson would like to see on Cardano is Solana, having recently stated on a Dec. 10 Ask Me Anything call that Cardano could leverage Solana’s network speed whilst Solana benefits from Cardano’s infrastructure and security.

Cardano community pumped

The news has Cardano fans pumped, with one member of the community hoping that Cardano experiences a similar price pump similar to that of Ethereum 2020-2021 when many layer-2 sidechains and utility tokens were rolled out.

2023 is the Year of #Cardano sidechains

- Midnight privacy sidechain
- Sidechains Toolkit EVM compatible
- Milkomeda, first Cardano sidechain
- ...more to come

Do you remember what happened when people started to build sidechains/tokens on Ethereum?
Take that and make it x10. https://t.co/n8KWCX2SVh
— Cardano Hieronymus (@CardanoHumpback) January 12, 2023

Another member of the Cardano fanbase called the toolkit deployment a “great move” that it will “spread the usage of Sidechains for Cardano” in the months to come:

Great move by @InputOutputHK I believe this help spread the usage of Sidechains for Cardano which is a good strategy if it evolves to use mithril / state proofs

As a core contributor to @Milkomeda_com we will continue to lead and hopefully support others to join https://t.co/auqp2TkEg1
— nicoarq (@NicoArqueros) January 12, 2023

However, IOG noted that the toolkit won’t serve as a “complete solution.”

“There are some known areas for improvement, like the bridge experience, SPO rewards mechanism and the security model. All these areas will be worked on with the community as we go – carefully and steadily – collaborating for feedback, thoughts and recommendations.”

In addition to sidechain improvements, the protocol will soon introduce parallel accounting styles as part of its "Basho phase" to improve interoperability in the Cardano ecosystem, according to the roadmap.

This isn’t the first sidechain solution that IOG has integrated on Cardano too, having already built a more basic EVM-compatible sidechain in July 2022 to get the sidechain development rolling.

Cardano also underwent its most significant hard fork — the Vasil upgrade — in September 2022, which has been said to make smart contract deployment more efficient and enable decentralized applications to run at lower costs.

The price of Cardano’s token, ADA is currently $0.3297, up 19.11% over the past week.

Virtual Machine

BitVM could patch up one of Lightning’s flaws

'Compute anything' misconception

Cardano community pumped

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