Vitalik outlines Bitcoin’s future roadmap
Original source: @BobBodily
Original compilation: LD Capital
Vitalik outlines Bitcoin’s future roadmap
Vitalik just published a new blog post about the different types of Layer 2 (L2) on Ethereum, which I think has strong relevance to Bitcoin.
My explanation is as follows.
Heterogeneity of L2 (L2 gradually differentiates from each other)
Vitalik believes that we are gradually seeing Layer 2 (L2) on Ethereum becoming more heterogeneous, which means that there is no longer a single type of L2, but a variety of L2s with different trade-offs.
The trade-off described here is best explained by the blockchain trilemma (a term coined by Vitalik himself), which points to three key aspects of blockchain technology: security, scalability and decentralization. There are trade-offs.
Some L2s have the following characteristics:
1. Slower, higher cost, and safer.
2. Faster and lower cost, but there are more trust assumptions.
3. In the middle level in terms of speed, cost and security.
Example
In some cases, these L2s are Layer 1 (L1) that become Layer 2 (L2) (for example, Polygon, which is an Ethereum sidechain, gradually transitions to Polygon 2.0 and becomes Ethereums L2 Rollup).
In some cases, they are fully centralized systems that want to decentralize certain parts of their technology stack.
In other cases, they want to achieve decentralization but do not necessarily need a highly secure gaming/social media platform.
In each case, you need to make different trade-offs in the blockchain trilemma, which means you need different solutions (or L2) to accomplish different tasks.
3 L2 types (actually more like gradients)
In his post, Vitalik talks about 3 main types of Layer 2 (L2):
1、Rollup
2、Validium
3. Disconnected systems
Rollup
Rollup is a zero-knowledge rollup, you can always bring assets back to L1 without trust.
Computations are verified via fraud proofs or validity proofs, and the entire data is stored on L1. Bitcoin currently does not have such zk Rollups because Bitcoin cannot verify proofs of validity, but there are many projects on Ethereum working towards this goal.
These are typically more costly because full data availability is required on L1 and expensive large proofs must be generated.
Validium
Validium is further developed from Rollup. In Validium, the data is stored elsewhere off-chain, and only the proof is stored on L1, which means that Validium costs much less than Rollup, but Validium introduces additional trust assumptions regarding off-chain data storage.
In Validiums scenario, if off-chain data is lost, your assets may also be lost (not stolen).
In the Validium model, the main cost is the proof cost, and while the data storage cost is subtracted, the proof generation cost is retained.
Disconnected
A Disconnected Layer 2 is essentially a sidechain, you have a completely separate blockchain or server, trust a multisig or a group of people to keep your tokens, and then get all the benefits of a sidechain (faster transactions speed, lower fees, etc.).
Layer 2 is a category
Importantly, Vitalik points out that L2 is a gradient, not a discrete classification. This means that an L2 may be between Validium and Rollup, or between Disconnected L2 and Validium.
Another important aspect of L2 is their connectivity to L1. Vitalik breaks it down into two parts:
1. Security of withdrawing from Ethereum
2. Read the security of Ethereum
These attributes are also distributed on a continuum.
Finally, he discusses the security spectrum, from security requirements on the left side of the figure to scalability requirements on the right side of the figure.
So what does the above have to do with Bitcoin?
This goes hand in hand with Bitcoin.
On Bitcoin we have:
Ordinals, BRC-20, Counterparty, Stamps, SRC-20, Colored coins, ARC-20, Atomicals, TAP, PIPE, BRC-100, BRC-69, BRC-21, ORC-20, ORC-CASH, Runes, Runestone, BRC-721, Lightning Network, Taproot Assets, RGB, Omni, MVC, Libre, Chia, Babylon, Interlay, Liquid, Stacks, ICP, RSK, ETH, BitVM, Bitcoin Script, TapScript, DLCs, Drivechains, Sidechains, Spacechains, Spiderchains, Statechains, Softchains, Ark,Optimistic Rollups (similar), Sovereign rollups (under development), ZK-Rollups (prospective), etc.
Bitcoin has a variety of interesting layers that can be categorized using Vitalik’s simple L2 framework, ranging from Rollup L2 to Validium L2 to Disconnected L2. You can safely extract from L1, and you can safely read from L1, whether you care more about security or scalability.
There are trade-offs with all of these Bitcoin layers (well explained by the blockchain trilemma), which explains why we may continue to see many layers being built on top of Bitcoin.
Summarize
Vitalik just laid out the future roadmap for Bitcoin for us, and the future roadmap is a wonderful world full of interesting Layer 2 solutions, all of which are making different trade-offs to support different use cases, and together increase the Bitcoin Layer 2 2 Decentralization of the ecosystem.
