Bitcoin Layer2 Blueprint: Looking at Future Development from Ethereum Scalability Experience

With the birth of the Ordinal protocol, Bitcoin has ushered in a brand new asset type – "inscriptions." This native asset issuance model has quickly gained market popularity, leading to the emergence of more asset issuance protocols such as BRC20, Atomical, Runes, etc., and has also given rise to numerous well-known inscriptions and Bitcoin native NFTs.

The Bitcoin ecosystem is once again迎来春天, attracting a large amount of capital, users, and developers. However, with development, people realize the limitations of Bitcoin as a Layer 1. On the one hand, Bitcoin does not support smart contracts, making it difficult to expand richer application scenarios. On the other hand, performance and miner fees have become huge obstacles to the further development of the ecosystem.

This wave quickly spread to the Bitcoin scalability track, igniting the boom of Bitcoin Layer 2. Some older scalability solutions have been revisited, and new Layer 2 projects continue to emerge. Among them, the Merlin Chain launched by the Bitmap Tech team once became a star project, but after its listing, it suffered a dual collapse in both coin price and TVL, raising doubts about Bitcoin Layer 2.

To look forward to the development of Bitcoin Layer 2, we can review the scalability journey of Ethereum. The scalability of Ethereum has gone through three stages: learning and exploration, a glimmer of hope, and a hundred flowers blooming.

1. Learning and Exploration Phase: Drawing on the experience of Bitcoin, explore methods such as state channels, the Lightning Network, and sidechains.

2. The stage of light at the end of the tunnel: The emergence of Plasma and Rollup technologies has brought breakthroughs in scalability.

3. Blooming Stage: Projects like Optimism and Arbitrum succeed, driving more teams to explore different solutions.

The development of Bitcoin Layer 2, although it started relatively early, still faces challenges. Solutions such as the Lightning Network, Liquid Network, RSK, RGB, and Stacks each have their advantages and disadvantages, and have not yet reached a widely recognized level. However, emerging projects like BEVM and Mezo have brought new possibilities for Bitcoin Layer 2.

BEVM achieves a trustless BTC network solution through Taproot Consensus, opening up new technical implementation logic. Mezo, on the other hand, innovatively implements BTC Layer 2 functionality using tBTC as a foundation.

Despite the challenges faced by Bitcoin Layer 2 development, its potential for growth is immense as the technological direction and path are confirmed. In the future, more projects that possess decentralization, native characteristics, and security are needed, along with the continuous contributions of established players and innovative projects to jointly promote ecosystem development.

The Bitcoin Layer 2 track has been opened, and we look forward to a true breakthrough rather than a fleeting hype. In this opportunity-filled field, in addition to having expectations, we also need patience and perseverance.