ABCDE: Why should we invest in UTXO Stack?
Original author: ABCDE Capital
The UTXO Stack led by ABCDE can technically help project developers issue BTC Layer 2 based on UTXO architecture with one click, and natively integrates RGB++ protocol capabilities. In terms of security, Layer 2 security is guaranteed by pledging BTC, CKB and BTC L1 assets.
Simply put, UTXO Stack is the “OP Stack + EigenLayer” of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
1. BTC Layer 2 battle and RGB++
If you want to explain UTXO Stack clearly, it is impossible to avoid RGB++
There are currently more than 20 BTC Layer 2 on the market, but most of them are EVM solutions, which basically use ETH’s technology stack + bridge to solve the BTC expansion problem. Although the ecosystem can be quickly built in the short term, in the long term, this solution has no strong binding relationship with the BTC main chain in terms of security and relies heavily on the bridge. Second, it is ideologically based on ETH. The Account model and EVM virtual machine are used to expand UTXO BTC, which seems to be somewhat not Bitcoin Native enough.
While security is highly related to BTC L1 and is a BTC Native solution, the Lightning Network has been running for many years and has not been able to achieve the desired results, and it has a natural expansion shortcoming that cannot support smart contracts. Client-side verification paradigm solutions such as Taproot and RGB also have many problems such as long implementation times and slow technological progress. This is also the main reason why the current EVM expansion solution is so popular.
Nervos, which has been deeply involved in the public chain field for many years, takes advantage of the natural structural advantages of POW+UTXO and innovative isomorphic mapping technology to seamlessly migrate the client verification paradigm of RGB to CKB, named for RGB++. It has sacrificed a little privacy in exchange for great functionality and flexibility expansion, and security is strongly bound to BTC L1. More importantly, RGB++ was launched just a few days ago! This means that this is no longer an expansion narrative that stays at the concept or development level, but a product that can actually start building ecosystems and solutions.
If the above terms are like client-side verification and isomorphic binding is still too abstract, then the following approximate analogy can be used to understand RGB++ - the user initiates a transaction in BTC L1 to trigger the RGB++ asset transaction belonging to the user on CKB. When This is better than when the transaction is completed on CKB and then written back to the previous Commitment of BTC L1
You may be wondering - this doesnt save gas fees, right? Users still have to initiate transactions on BTC L1 and still have to pay the gas fee on BTC. Now they have to add the gas fee on CKB. Does it feel more expensive?
In fact, this is not the case. There are four benefits:
RGB++, as an asset issuance protocol, gives BTC L1 the ability to issue new RGB assets (think Merlin’s BRC 420)
RGB++ asset transactions on CKB are completely Turing-complete and programmable.
You can wait for multiple RGB++ transfers to be completed, and then send a Commitment to Bitcoin L1. This is called transaction folding. Isnt it very Rollup-like? This will save a lot of gas fees.
Not only RGB++ assets can be mapped to CKB, Atomical, Rune and other assets with UTXO characteristics can also be mapped to CKB for Turing-complete transactions.
Because UTXO on Bitcoin L1 can operate or update RGB++UTXO, in RGB++, CKB becomes the execution + DA layer of BTC, and BTC L1 becomes the true settlement layer. This is the case for any EVM currently. and non-EVM BTC expansion solutions cannot achieve this.
What if you feel that this solution is still not fast enough or low enough? After all, transactions on BTC L1 are still inevitable, and CKB’s limit TPS as a POW L1 is only a few hundred. Is there a more flexible and faster expansion solution, like...Appchain in the ETH ecosystem?
So we have UTXO Stack, the OP Stack based on BTC and RGB++
2. UTXO Stack — BTC’s OP Stack+EigenLayer
If you are familiar with OP Stack, RAAS (Rollup as a Service) protocol stack, UTXO should be very easy for you to understand.
With UTXO Stack, you can issue isomorphic UTXO Appchains of BTC with one click, and these Appchains have the following characteristics
UTXO model, ultra-high TPS (UTXO is born with parallel processing), ultra-low gas cost
POS mechanism, security is provided by BTC/CKB pledged on BTC (similar to EigenLayer)
The asset protocol uses RGB++. Due to the existence of isomorphic mapping technology, assets can jump arbitrarily between Appchain/CKB/BTC without the need for a cross-chain bridge.
Can reuse CKB smart contract stack
BTC wallet can be reused (users have no awareness of the CKB chain)
Finally, we have a Bitcoin-native, UTXO-based chain issuance infrastructure. This infrastructure also incorporates the Restaking concept proposed by EigenLayer, which not only better empowers BTC and CKB, but also provides a cold start for Appchain. and security protection
It is foreseeable that in the near future, BTC EVM layer 2 and BTC UTXO layer 2 will launch a round of head-on confrontation at multiple levels of technology, ecology, and even ideology.
RGB++ took less than two months from its formal proposal in February to its implementation in April, demonstrating the teams extremely strong engineering capabilities. UTXO Stack was launched at the same time as RGB++ was launched, which gave the BTC ecological asset issuance and gameplay more diverse +Bitcoin Native possibilities. We believe and work together with UTXO Stack to push the Bitcoin ecosystem into a better and more prosperous future.
