B² Network: The first zk proof verification commitment rollup on Bitcoin
It’s been 15 years since the release of the Bitcoin whitepaper. Bitcoin is the cradle of blockchain ideology. Countless have stood on the shoulders of this giant, constantly innovating.
B² team began building in crypto back in 2015. Over the years, we witnessed milestones in the Ethereum ecosystem, observing the development of ecosystems like Polkadot, Cosmos, the Move language, while focusing closely on Bitcoin’s progress. The emergence of Ordinals assets in 2023 showcased the innovative spirit of Bitcoin developers and the immense potential within the community. Bitcoin lacks a unified ‘upgrade roadmap’. We see it as an opportunity. We’ve decided to dedicate our expertise to analyzing Bitcoin’s present state and exploring possibilities for a more diverse ecosystem around the Bitcoin network.
Market and data analysis revealed several issues:
1. Poor on-chain liquidity for BTC assets: nearly 95% of BTC remains inactive for a month, around 90% inactive for a year, potentially due to the limited on-chain use cases (mostly limited to transfers and payments). Also possibly because people believe in holding BTC for the long term (data as of 9/23/2023);
2. Limited actual user groups for new Bitcoin assets: there are 48.71M BTC addresses holding balances but only 465k Ordinals addresses. The high entry barriers and limited use cases for new assets (currently more meme-oriented) restricted its imaginative space (data as of 9/25/2023);
3. On EVM-compatible chains, we can find many DeFi applications that use BTC as an anchor or trading pair. The market is not lacking in desire for BTC but is hindered by BTC network limitations;
4. The reserves of centralized exchanges (CEX) consistently reflect BTC as the second-largest, following only the stablecoin USDT (sourced from Binance & OKX). Moreover, CEXs have numerous scenarios primarily based on BTC, such as spot and futures trading in BTC, along with various financial products using BTC as collateral or the primary currency. This reflects the abundant presence of users and products eager to utilize BTC in the market.
Years of technical expertise, sustained attention, and in-depth market research based on data led us to expand the Bitcoin network, establishing Bitcoin Layer2 to introduce a Turing-complete smart contract execution layer, supporting DApps in DeFi, NFT, GameFi, SocialFi, and more.
From Ethereum’s ecosystem, it’s clear that sidechains, Plasma, etc., aren’t the answer; currently, Rollup stands as the optimal Layer2 solution.
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Based on our experience in building other ecosystems, creating a new developer ‘Lego’ from scratch is immensely challenging, facing four major issues: 1. Learning costs for developers adapting to a new contract language or paradigm; 2. An extensive array of developer tools will be required for a completely new ecosystem; 3. Contract security concerns arise due to limited market validation over the years, casting doubt on its security, posing risks in DeFi operations; 4. User education costs. Over 90% of Crypto users are familiar with EVM-compatible ecosystems that already have various mature and secure applications, making an EVM-compatible Layer2 more likely to succeed.
After careful consideration, we decided to establish the first EVM-compatible Rollup based on zero-knowledge proof verification commitment on Bitcoin. Rollup data and zk proof verification commitments are recorded on the Bitcoin Network, finally confirmed via a challenge-response mechanism.
B²’s technical highlights:
1. zk Rollup: ensuring rollup transaction security through zero-knowledge proofs;
2. Generating Taproot Commitment based on rollup zk proof verification, published on the Bitcoin network as rollup’s fraud proof;
3. Confirmation of fraud proof via challenge-response mechanism on the Bitcoin network, ultimately ensuring rollup’s security;
4. B² rollup supports BTC address account, ETH address account and social account;
5. Securely embedding Bitcoin Txs through zk proof within B² rollup, generating Bitcoin State for users and developers;
6. Supporting decentralized sequencer, ensuring sequencer’s security and trustworthiness.
Through these technical means, B² aims to offer a scenario for building applications for BTC and other Bitcoin-related assets, making Bitcoin not just as ‘digital gold’ but also a leader in application scenarios in cryptos. We’ll provide the most practical technical architecture, setting the stage for BTC-related assets, where DeFi, NFT, SocialFi, and other applications can thrive and flourish.
This will be a gift to blockchain, Bitcoin, and all developers and users from B² Network.
