Blockchain developers on Thursday unveiled a new platform intended to catapult Bitcoin into the modern era of decentralized finance (DeFi) – an industry that has largely kept the original crypto network at bay.
The new platform, called BitcoinOS, is pitched as a “public good” that uses “sovryn rollups” to create a foundational layer for decentralized apps (dapps) on Bitcoin. Any developer can contribute, the founders say, and build new tools in any programming language.
“Sovryn rollups will use Bitcoin as a data availability (DA) layer, unlike ZK rollups where the rollup is managed by a smart contract on the parent chain,” Edan Yago, a core contributor to BitcoinOS, told me. Declutter. “Because Bitcoin does not have such smart contracts, ZK rollups are impossible on Bitcoin.”
Does Bitcoin seem frozen in time? Other chains have smart contracts, layers of scale, rollups – and Bitcoin?
Introducing BitcoinOS: a superlayer of interoperable rollups that turns Bitcoin into a global operating system.
Innovation is coming to Bitcoin! #BitcoinOS
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— Sovryn | DeFi for Bitcoin (@SovrynBTC) January 25, 2024
Although very secure, Bitcoin’s main blockchain is known for being slow compared to other blockchains and very expensive during periods of high activity. Meanwhile, limited programming language has left it without truly decentralized solutions for scaling transactions for a long time.
While existing technologies such as sidechains (Liquid, Rootstock, etc.) can enable faster transactions, they require users to rely on centralized, federated bridges in order not to have their funds stolen or frozen. They also suffer from a lack of liquidity among other blockchains, creating liquidity silos for DeFi projects that have yet to get off the ground.
BitcoinOS, on the other hand, says it has everything developers want from a scaling solution with minimal compromises: scalability, programmability, interoperability, and a near-reliable security model.
Additionally, the framework’s built-in fraud system “enables even a single honest participant to prevent fraudulent transactions,” according to a Thursday press release from Sovryn, the DeFi project behind BitcoinOS. Yago is also the founder and CEO of Sovryn.
“It enables full smart contracts, and it allows any developer to launch their own package and ensure that all the applications built on these different packages are composable and interoperable with all the other packages,” Yago explains. This means that all projects built on BitcoinOS can seamlessly share users and activities, because all rollups are built from the same modular parts.
Sovryn started as a protocol on Roostock, but Yago said they started to feel limited by the network’s technology. Nevertheless, the company has processed $2.2 billion in transactions and loans and has $46.82 million in total value under lock (TVL), according to DeFi Llama.
BitcoinOS represents “phase 2” of Sovryn’s plan to expand Bitcoin’s usefulness beyond a global reserve currency. Phase 3, according to Yago, is “building a world on Bitcoin – a real alternative to today’s stagnant centralized economic, corporate and state interests.”
Following the announcement of BitcoinOS, Sovryn’s SOV rose 60% to $1.37, according to CoinGecko.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
