Blockchain developers unveiled a new platform Thursday intended to catapult bitcoin into the modern era of decentralized finance (DeFi) — an industry that has kept the industry's leading crypto network at arm's length.
The new platform, named Bitcoin OS, is positioned as a “public utility” that uses “sovryn rollups” to create a base layer of decentralized applications (dapps) on top of Bitcoin. According to the founders, any developer can contribute to it and build new tools in any programming language.
“Sovryn rollups use Bitcoin as the Data Availability (DA) layer, unlike ZK rollups, where the package is controlled by a smart contract on the parent chain,” Aidan Yago, lead contributor for BitcoinOS, told Decrypt. “ZK package is impossible on Bitcoin because Bitcoin does not have such smart contracts.”
Although secure, Bitcoin's main blockchain is known to be slow compared to other blockchains and very expensive during periods of high activity. Meanwhile, the limited programming language kept it from truly decentralized marketing optimization solutions.
While technologies like sidechains—Liquid, Rootstock, and so on—can enable fast transactions, they require users to trust federally regulated bridges to prevent their funds from being stolen or stolen. They also suffer from a lack of liquidity with other blockchains, creating liquidity siloes for DeFi projects yet to take off.
In contrast, BitcoinOS says it has everything developers want from a blockchain solution with microtransactions: scalability, programmability, interoperability, and a foolproof security model.
Additionally, the framework's built-in anti-fraud system “enables even one honest participant to prevent fraudulent transactions,” the DeFi project behind BitcoinOS said in a Thursday press release from Sovrin. Yago is the founder and CEO of Sovrin.
“It allows complete modern contracts, and allows any developer to start their own package and have all the applications built on these different packages work together with the other packages,” Yago explained. That means all projects built on BitcoinOS can seamlessly share users and activities, as all packages are built from the same modular components.
While Sovrin started as a protocol on Rostock, Yago said they felt limited by the network's technology. However, it has arranged $2.2 billion in trade and loans and carried $46.82 million in total value locked (TVL), Defi Lama said.
BitcoinOS represents “Phase 2” of Sovereign's plan to expand the use of Bitcoin beyond becoming a global reserve currency. Step 3, according to Yago, is “building the world with Bitcoin – a real alternative to today's centralized economic, corporate and governmental needs.
Following the BitcoinOS announcement, the sovereign currency's SOV surged 60% to $1.37, CoinGecko reported.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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