With the leading exchanges Binance and OKX listing the mainstream assets of ORDI, SATS and RATS (contracts), the remaining Inscription assets are still difficult to take the lead, and the listing of Bitcoin Inscription on the exchanges has gradually entered a vacuum period. With the passage of the BTC ETF and the hype for the ETH ETF, the ETH/BTC exchange rate continues to strengthen, and some funds are gradually being transferred from BTC to ETH, and from the BTC ecosystem to the ETH ecosystem. The Bitcoin ecosystem may enter a quiet Build phase.
This article will analyze the Bitcoin ecological track based on personal understanding and take stock of representative projects on the track. It is worth noting that the Bitcoin ecosystem is still in its infancy and the risks are high, so investors need to make rational judgments.
Launchpad Launchpad
BRC-20 provides a convenient way for the Bitcoin network to issue assets. While providing opportunities for grassroots counterattacks, it also allows various inscription projects of worrying quality to occupy network space and distract users' attention. Adhering to the original intention of selecting high-quality projects for users, Launchpad came into being. Launchpad is one of the most mature tracks in the current Bitcoin ecosystem. It can not only build the first security barrier for users to invest, but also continuously empower its own platform currency.
However, as the number of staking users increases, the winning rate and share will become increasingly larger; and in order to continue to maintain the value of the platform currency, Launchpad needs to continuously launch new projects. In this process, especially when more users When relying on Launchpad, Launchpad is prone to intentionally or unintentionally putting inferior assets online due to the interests behind it. Even for high-quality assets, if the returns do not meet expectations, it is easy for early users to complain.
TurtSat
TurtSat is one of the mainstream launchers on Bitcoin Ordinals and has established partners with OKX, Galxe, UniSat, and DWF Labs, among others. Most of the projects incubated/launched by TurtSat have achieved good returns, including CHAX Bitcoin and MultiBit. However, there are also doubts about the seriousness of the Dova project and its cooperation with the suspected backdoor project Copycat.
Bounce
The core of Bounce's product is a decentralized auction platform for users to create and participate in auctions of tokens and NFTs. Before entering Bitcoin Ordinals, Bounce's AUCTION token has been listed on mainstream exchanges such as Binance, OKX and Coinbase; its projects launched on Bitcoin include Bitcoin stablecoin protocol BitStable and Ordinals DID protocol BDID.
The Bounce smart contract has completed an audit by Binance Labs-funded Salus Security.
DeFi
Before being launched on the centralized exchange, the trading method of Mingwen assets was the same as the earlier NFT pending order transaction, and instant transactions could not be achieved. Since there are no smart contracts on the Bitcoin network, it is very difficult to implement DeFi functions such as Ethereum DEX and lending on Bitcoin. There are currently several ways to achieve similar functions indirectly or through third-party solutions: using third-party protocols to execute smart contracts on side chains parallel to the Bitcoin blockchain; cross-chain technology; Atomic Swaps (atomic swaps); Lightning Network L2 et al.
ALEX
ALEX is an integrated trading platform for encrypted assets using Bitcoin as the settlement layer and Stacks as the smart contract layer. Currently, ALEX has launched the B20 (Orderbook) swap function, allowing users to trade BRC-20 assets through AMM.
ALEX has raised $8.3 million in total funding and received an undisclosed amount of strategic financing last December.
BendDAO
BendDAO is an old lending project on Ethereum NFT. In December last year, it announced that it would embrace the BTC ecosystem and would provide BTC NFT lending services and support the wBTC liquidity pool as a loanable asset. We are currently exploring the seamless interaction between BTC NFT and BendDAO. Solutions include relying on third-party cross-chain bridges and multi-signature wallet cross-chain bridges.
BitStable
Bitstable is a Bitcoin network stablecoin protocol incubated by Bounce. Bitstable is quite clever in its design. It allows users to use BRC-20 assets ORDI, MUBI (MultiBit) and BSSB (platform token) as collateral to mint the stable currency DAII on the Bitcoin network and destroy it through the cross-chain bridge MultiBit. Exchanged into ETH DAII; due to the lack of smart contracts, the decision-making ability of the Bitstable governance system is very important, and the parameters of minting, destruction and staking can be manually adjusted. In addition, Bitstable has also built a staking function for DAII on the Bitcoin network. By staking DAII, you can obtain the platform token BSSB.
Bitstable also supports collateral from Ethereum, with primarily USDT as DAII collateral. Official website data shows that the current supply of DAII is approximately 21.73 million, of which ERC-20 DAII reaches 21.64 million. The collateral includes 18.63 million USDT and 3 million FDUSD in ERC-20, as well as 6,479 ORDI, 1.33 million MUBI and 9 million in BRC-20. Thousand BSSB.
Bitstable has completed a Salus Security audit.
BitFlow
BitFlow provides users with a Bitcoin open source platform that can use BTC to trade and earn income. It utilizes technologies such as Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction (PSBT), Atomic Swaps and Stacks Bitcoin (sBTC). Its core functions include stablecoin trading. , Bitcoin trading, one-sided liquidity and revenue mining. BitFlow plans to launch BTC Atomic Swaps in the fourth quarter of 2023 in its roadmap, but it is not yet live.
BitFlow has received investments/donations from the likes of Stacks Foundation and Bitcoin Startup Lab, and has completed audits by Coinfabrik and StrataLabs.
Cross-chain bridge
Bitcoin's cross-chain bridge may be much more important than the cross-chain bridge between EVMs. It not only carries the migration of Bitcoin network assets, but is also an important way for Bitcoin to access more complex financial systems. But precisely because of the value and influence of Bitcoin, the security of its cross-chain bridge is particularly important. Any security breach may cause significant economic losses and market impact. The design and implementation of cross-chain bridges need to strictly consider security and decentralization, and such security is not only reflected in preventing potential hacker attacks, but also requires solutions when certain assets experience an index consensus differentiation crisis.
MultiBit
MultBit is the first BRC-20 cross-chain bridge project between Bitcoin and EVM networks incubated by TurtSat. It uses multi-sign contracts to realize the transmission of tokens in different networks and relies on listening nodes to monitor the transaction status of Bitcoin and EVM networks. . Since its launch, MultiBit Bridge has completed over $490 million in cross-chain transaction volume. In addition, MultiBit also supports cross-chain NFT from Bitcoin to Ethereum, and will be expanded to include staking, mining, and trading functions in the future.
MultBit has completed a Salus Security audit.
Layer2
There is still a lot of debate about the necessity of Bitcoin Layer2. This mainly depends on the understanding of the current performance, future development goals and market demand of the Bitcoin network. For example, when BRC-20 is hot, it will bring about a significant increase in network transaction fees. I hope there will be L2 solutions can reduce transaction costs by batch processing transactions on top of the main chain, but any L2 needs to improve efficiency while maintaining the security and decentralization of the network; users are eager for faster and cheaper Bitcoin L2 Whether there is strong enough demand, L2 may lead to different levels in the Bitcoin ecosystem, whether the assets leaving the high-priced Bitcoin main network still belong to the Bitcoin network itself, etc. Whatever the arguments, those in favor are already on the road to Bitcoin Layer 2.
BitfinityNetwork
Bitfinity is an EVM-compatible L2 network built on ICP as an L2 network for Bitcoin and on-chain assets. It uses a threshold encryption scheme called Chain-Key to create a decentralized cross-chain bridge between Bitfinity and the Bitcoin mainnet. , the Chain-key private key is periodically regenerated every 11 minutes via "moon-math". Bitfinity has launched the test network and is expected to launch the main network in January-February, and will have Bitfinity’s native token BFT.
Bitfinity completed $7 million in token financing in January this year, with investments from Polychain Capital and ParaFi Capital, and its latest valuation reached $130 million.
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Nubit is a Bitcoin-native data availability layer launched by Riema Labs that is committed to changing the way transactions on the Bitcoin network are processed, making it more cost-effective and efficient. In addition, Riema is also studying the Bitcoin native data availability standard BRC-1310, including BTC staking, data availability sampling technology, data proof directly on the Bitcoin network, and decentralized bridges, which will reduce trust requirements, increase data throughput, and reduce cost and improved data accessibility.
Riema Labs completed an undisclosed amount of angel round financing in January this year, with investments from Bounce Finance, BRC-20 founder domo and others.
NFT
From the perspective of data being completely stored on the chain and immutable, it may be more appropriate to store art collections as NFTs on Bitcoin than on Ethereum. In the early days, Casey’s original intention of creating Ordinals was also to store something that would never change on the Bitcoin network. . Although Bitcoin NFT is still in its early days, excellent projects such as Bitcoin Frog and NodeMonkes have emerged, as well as some early explorations to implement financial leverage operations based on Bitcoin NFT.
Liquid
Liduidium is a peer-to-peer lending platform built on the Bitcoin network. Users can use Bitcoin Ordinals NFT assets or BRC-20 assets as collateral for BTC lending. This process is through partially signed Bitcoin transactions (PSBT) and discrete logs. contract (DLC).
Liquidium completed a $1.25 million pre-seed round in December last year from investors including Bitcoin Frontier Fund and Side Door Ventures.
