Bitcoin

<div class="sg-post-des">
 The author of the white paper, Robin Linus, based BitVM’s architecture on Ethereum’s optimistic rollups with fraud proofs and recent Merkle tree developments.
</div>
<div class="cointelegraph">
 A Bitcoin developer has proposed a new way to <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="bring" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/bring.html">bring</a> more expressive off-chain smart <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="contracts" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/contracts.html">contracts</a> to Bitcoin (BTC)&nbsp;without needing a soft fork.
 Announced in an Oct.9 white paper titled “BitVM: Compute Anything on Bitcoin” by ZeroSync’s project lead Robin Linus, BitVM enables Turing-complete Bitcoin contracts without altering Bitcoin’s consensus rules.
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 "Any computable function can be verified on Bitcoin"https://t.co/Itf9UHos0C pic.twitter.com/CLQv49Ydsg— яobin linus (@robin_linus) October 9, 2023
 </blockquote>
 A Turing Complete system is one which can theoretically provide an answer to any computational problem.
 The “logic” of Bitcoin <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="contracts" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/contracts.html">contracts</a> is executed off-chain but is then verified on Bitcoin — similar to Ethereum’s optimistic rollups.
 BitVM’s architecture is based on fraud proofs and a challenge-response model where a “prover” can make claims and a “verifier” can perform a fraud-proof to punish the prover when false claims are made.
 Linus explained that Bitcoin, in its current form, is limited to basic operations, such as signatures, timelocks, and hashlocks — but that can now be broadened with BitVM, which Linus says can compute a host of interesting applications.
 <blockquote>
 “Potential applications include games like Chess, Go, or Poker, and particularly, verification of validity proofs in Bitcoin contracts.”
 </blockquote>
 “Additionally, it might be possible to bridge BTC to foreign chains, build a prediction market, or emulate novel opcodes,” said Linus.
 Linus said a limitation of the model is that it is limited to a two-party setting with a prover and a verifier and that a significant amount of off-chain computation and communication is needed to execute programs.
 Linus said the next “milestone” is to fully implement the BitVM in addition to Tree++ — a high-level programming language to write and debug Bitcoin <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="contracts" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/contracts.html">contracts</a>.
 BitVM is enabled by the Taproot soft fork which took place in November 2021.
 Linus cited Ethereum research into optimistic rollups and a study on Merkle Trees in contributing to the eight-page white <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="paper" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/paper.html">paper</a>.
 <h3 id="bitcoiners-respond-to-bitvm">Bitcoiners respond to BitVM</h3>
 Prominent Bitcoiner Eric Wall posted on X (Twitter) that the concepts outlined in the BitVM white <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="paper" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/paper.html">paper</a> “check out” and is “cautiously excited” to see what real-world experiments stem from it.
 Bitcoin analyst Dylan LeClair is also impressed with BitVM’s white paper. But Adam Back, a Bitcoin Core contributor suggested that people shouldn’t get too excited about the development just yet.
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 for people getting (over) excited, this is cool but effectively a generalization of a two-party game - it says right in the abstract - so it's a bit like Greg Maxwell's 2016 ZKP contingent payments implemented example https://t.co/OeHRsbFjud— Adam Back (@adam3us) October 9, 2023
 </blockquote>
 Related: BIP-300 biff: Debate reignites over years-old Bitcoin Drivechain proposal
 One builder in the blockchain space, “dotta,” noted that there is already a proof-of-concept on GitHub.
 Another X user, Sam Parker, attempted to resolve a common fear among Bitcoin maximalists by explaining that BitVM won’t force Bitcoin’s to be “locked” into these contracts.
 <blockquote>
 “Finally, this is opt-in. If you don’t trust your coins being locked to some Turing complete contract (totally reasonable) then don’t lock them to a Turing complete smart contract. One of [the] beauties of the UTXO system is security sandboxing.”
 </blockquote>
 Others, such as “psage” say BitVM adds to the list of things that will push Bitcoin’s price forward in the next bull market.
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 The bullish stuff around #Bitcoin is snowballing, lots of them controversial, nevertheless a few off my finger tips: - BitVM - Ordinals - Multiple Pres Candidates talking about it - ETF - Halving - Privacy improvements - Exponential Hash Rate increase - Countries mining ....— psage (@perspiringsage) October 9, 2023
 </blockquote>
 Cointelegraph contacted Linus for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
 Magazine: Wolf Of All Streets worries about a world where Bitcoin hits $1M: Hall of Flame
 <template data-name="subscription_form" data-type="crypto_biz"></template>
</div>
Source: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://thebittimes.com/bitcoiner-drops-bitvm-paper-bringing-ethereum-like-contracts-to-bitcoin-tbt65709.html">https://thebittimes.com/bitcoiner-drops-bitvm-paper-bringing-ethereum-like-contracts-to-bitcoin-tbt65709.html</a>

Bitcoiner drops BitVM paper — bringing Ethereum-like contracts to Bitcoin

Table of Contents

TheBitTimes

Other articles published on Oct 10, 2023

State-Backed Chinese Newspaper to Launch NFT Platform Bridgeable to OpenSea

Santiment Elevates XRPL Development: Insights from RippleX

Shiba Inu On the Verge of a Breakout? Can SHIB Jump Another 1,000%?

ABC Conclave — Dubai — The Pinnacle of Web3 Innovation, Gathering Global Experts to Forge the Fut...

Deepfake of Keir Starmer Highlights AI’s Threat to Democracy

Gegara Perang Israel-Hamas, Nvidia Batalkan Konferensi AI

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!