Lightning Labs releases Taproot Assets alpha, bringing a stable coin to Bitcoin

Bitcoin Layer-2 infrastructure firm Lightning Labs has released the Taproot Assets mainnet, a protocol to enable stablecoins and real-world assets to be mined on Bitcoin and the Lightning network.

The current version of Taproot Assets v0.3 provides a “feature-rich developer experience” for mining, managing and exploring stablecoins and other assets on the Bitcoin blockchain, said Ryan Gentry, head of business development at Lightning Labs.

“We believe this new era of Bitcoin will see countless global currencies emerging as Taproot Assets and global foreign exchange transactions instantly verified on the Lightning Network.”

“With this release, developers can provide financial assets on-chain in an scalable manner,” Lightning Labs said in a separate post on October 18. “Today is the new era of multi-asset bitcoin”.

Announcing the first mainnet release of Taproot Assets, an asset protocol on #bitcoin and Lightning.

With this release, developers can provide financial assets on-chain in a scalable manner.

Today marks a new era of multi-asset Bitcoin. https://t.co/2cNvZSvv8v

— Lightning Labs⚡️ (@Lightning) October 18, 2023

This version of Taproot Assets works by moving Bitcoin liquidity over the Lightning Network.

Gentry says the merger will extend the effects of the Bitcoin network and take it one step closer to “making the dollar Bitcoin.” He added:

“This is how we make bitcoin the global circulation network for the internet of money. This is how we make bitcoin the dollar and the world's financial asset.”

Gentry described developer interest in Bitcoin-based stablecoin applications as “fantastic” — especially since some of the coin's issuers hold more US treasuries than those in Germany, South Korea.

We deserve the future #bitcoin https://t.co/XW433TVEIL

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) October 18, 2023

“[It] It indicates the importance of these assets on a global scale and gives a sense of scale to global consumer demand, Gentry added.

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According to Gentry, about 2,000 Taproot Assets were hosted on Tetnetnets prior to the main alpha launch.

An alpha start means that the development is not at the final stage. Lightning Labs said the alpha release shows they expect the community to check for potential bugs.

Bitcoin Drivechains (via Bitcoin Update Proposal-300), Botanix Labs' Spiderchain, and BitVM are among other developments that seek to expand Bitcoin's potential in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

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