With the countdown to halving, what are the benefits to the Bitcoin ecosystem?
Original author: Bitui Asher Zhang
The market as a whole has been weak recently and is in a consolidation stage. However, tokens related to the Bitcoin ecological concept in the market have performed relatively strongly and attracted relatively high market attention. As the countdown to the Bitcoin halving begins, what sectors and tracks will the Bitcoin ecosystem be worth paying attention to? Apart from BCH, what other halving concept coins are worth paying attention to? What major upgrades will the inscriptions and runes receive after they are halved? What major benefits will the Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem gradually release?
The halving concept coin is about to start, and the bull market dinner is about to begin
With the advent of Bitcoins halving, a number of halving concept coins have also begun to attract market attention. Among them, BCH was halved in the early morning of April 4 and has experienced a large increase recently.
According to the detailed description on gitlab.com, BCH will usher in the next upgrade on May 15 this year. This upgrade is expected to implement the CHIP 2023-04 Adaptive Blocksize Limit Algorithm. To reduce social attacks on BCH and save costs for all network participants, developers propose automatically adjusting the block size limit after each block based on the exponentially weighted moving average size of the previous block.
In addition, BSV is expected to halve on April 14; ETC is expected to halve on June 7; DASH is expected to halve on July 10; ZEC is expected to halve on November 22; ZEN is expected to halve in December Halved on the 11th.
Runes goes online after halving, challenging BRC 20 head-on
Both BRC 20 and Runes protocols are homogeneous token distribution protocols based on the Ordinals protocol. Since the release of the BRC 20 protocol, many BRC 20 tokens have been produced, including the famous ORDI, SATS, etc. However, due to the limitations of the protocol itself nature, a large number of UTXO sets are generated, too much information is stored on the chain, causing congestion in the Bitcoin memory pool, and the gas continues to increase. The behavior of engraving tokens also has a backlash against the normal operation of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In order to solve the shortcomings of the BRC 20 protocol, the Runes protocol, which is said to be more concise, announced that it will officially launch the RUNE rune protocol based on the UTXO model after the Bitcoin halving. The difference between the Runes protocol and the BRC 20 protocol is that all rune balances will be stored in unspent UTXO, so it well solves the problem of the continuous expansion and diffusion of useless UTXO, and because it is based on the UTXO model, on the one hand it is consistent with Lightning It is network compatible. On the other hand, it relies less on off-chain centralized indexing, which better ensures security. In fact, compared with the BRC 20 protocol, the Runes protocol has obvious advantages in technology.
Interestingly, the BRC 20 protocol has also recently been announced to be upgraded. The BRC 20 protocol chose to upgrade at the time when Runes is about to be launched. The founder domo has currently demonstrated the updated content in relevant documents, including the introduction of a self-issuing mechanism, modification of the deployment inscription, the adoption of 5-byte code, and the destruction of BRC-20 assets. Method to establish consensus. The upgrade has been activated at block height 837090. Due to the introduction of the self-issuance mechanism, the deployer can choose to decide how to distribute it to other users after completing the mint, so that the first batch competes for deployment. Enthusiasts for five-character tokens have even pushed gas costs into the thousands of dollars.
Inscriptions and runes compete openly, and the two have re-attracted the markets attention to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Casey even said on the social platform: If the market value of the Rune ecosystem does not reach 1 billion US dollars within one month after its release, I will commit suicide. After the Bitcoin halving, a new wealth creation effect seems to be ready.
Bitcoin Layer 2 concept takes advantage of halving, and a lot of benefits are about to be released
With the advent of the Bitcoin halving, Bitcoin Layer 2, which has attracted a lot of market attention recently, has also stated that it is preparing to release big moves after the halving. Unlike the simple functions of inscriptions and runes, Bitcoin Layer 2 is mostly compatible with EVM and can unlock more application scenarios. This article will mainly take stock of the Bitcoin Layer 2 ecological projects worthy of attention.
Merlin Chain – Unlocking pledged assets
On February 28, Merlin Chain launched the Merlins Seal pledge activity. Through this activity, users can accumulate M points by pledging various assets to obtain Merlin Chains governance token $MERL. The Merlin Chain governance token $MERL awarded in this staking event is 20% of the total supply. On March 19, Merlin Chain, the second-layer Bitcoin network, announced that M-Token was officially launched. The pledged assets of users participating in Merlins Seal are expected to be unlocked in April, at which time users can unlock the original pledged assets by destroying the corresponding mapped asset M-Token. At that time, M-Token can be exchanged for the original assets at a ratio of 1:1.
Stacks – Nakamoto upgrade
Stacks is the smart contract layer on Bitcoin. The initial version was launched in 2021. This is also the earliest Layer 2 project in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Stacks has launched the Nakamoto testnet to the public on March 26. Stacks co-creator Muneeb Ali previously said that the Stacks Nakamoto upgrade will be launched between April 15th and 29th. The boot contract required for the Nakamoto upgrade is ready.
B² Network – Mainnet launch
B² Network is a Layer 2 solution on Bitcoin. It mainly uses zero-knowledge proof verification commitments to be submitted to the Bitcoin network, allowing challengers to initiate fraud proof challenges to achieve the use of the strong consensus of the Bitcoin network to ensure the security of B² Network. the goal of. According to reports, the B² mainnet will be launched in April.
BounceBit – Mainnet launch
BounceBit is a DeFi solution designed specifically for the Bitcoin ecosystem, powered by AUCTION and based on BTCB. The solution adopts an asset-centric strategy, with the core asset being BTCB, a BEP 2/BEP 20 asset pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin and locked on the Bitcoin blockchain. BounceBit plans to launch the mainnet on April 23, conduct an airdrop in May, and open BounceBit point redemption and asset withdrawal functions at the same time.
Summarize
With the passage of Bitcoin ETF, traditional financial capital began to pour into Bitcoin in large quantities; in addition, as Layer 2 technology matured, many project parties began to migrate to the Bitcoin ecosystem, thereby unlocking more application scenarios for Bitcoin. Bitcoin Ecosystem Driven by the influx of capital and technological innovation, BTC has shown continued strong market momentum, and its ecological development is also in full swing. This is different from the rotation of sectors in the previous bull market. The development of the Bitcoin ecosystem in this round of bull market has shown great continuity, and its ecological concept also deserves continued attention.
