The purpose of BitVM is to scale Bitcoin, not to be a fake Ethereum, says the dev
One of the developers working on “BitVM” – a virtual machine based on Bitcoin – reiterates that the technology is intended to scale Bitcoin rather than launch decentralized financial applications on the network like Ethereum.
The BitVM white paper was released by ZeroSync project leader Robin Linus on October 10th with technical support from the anonymous developer “Super Testnet” – working on implementing BitVM's initial proof-of-concept and expanding BitVM's capabilities.
After its release, some industry experts speculated that BitVM would bring DeFi to Bitcoin as Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) did to Ethereum.
Lightning will also short out in the measurement room. It's nowhere close to solving scalability. We need more extras.
> This is another flaw in the bitcoin experiment.
Again, the author's motivation behind BitVM was not DeFi. It was expanding.
— Hampus (@hampus_s) October 12, 2023
However, Supertestnet tells Cointelegraph that BitVM is focused on scaling rather than implementing smart contracts and altcoin proliferation:
“The real killer app is streamlining Bitcoin. [Robin Linus isn’t] Big fan of smart contracts. He is not a big fan of increasing Bitcoin's transparency. Bitcoin is very interested in allowing it to handle millions of transactions per second.
Supertestnet says he doesn't want BitVM to be flooded with (EVM)-like tokens because that would bring bad actors into Bitcoin.
“I don't want to see everything from the Ethereum ecosystem because most of it is a Ponzi scheme.”
Building a decentralized exchange on Bitcoin would be “backwards”.
Meanwhile, super testnet BitVM won't be the “quick death” for Ethereum altcoins, as some have suggested – even though it may take away interest from them.
Fresh from the press: BitVM White Paper Drops! Experience the most useful computing for smart contracts on #Bitcoin
Unlock functionality that would otherwise require a soft fork with these improved smart contracts.
Could this be the end of #altcoins? pic.twitter.com/1GA43VE7If
— RichQuack (@RichQuack) October 10, 2023
The developer hopes that Bitcoin (BTC) will essentially remain the only currency on the Bitcoin network:
“A big asset of what makes Bitcoin important is maintaining a single monetary asset that everyone can agree on, rather than having floating exchange rates that burden businesses,” he said.
BitVM may fix one of the Lightning bugs.
Meanwhile, SuperTestNet BitVM's proposed payment infrastructure also aims to improve one of the Lightning Network's shortcomings – payment reliability:
“Lightning as a system is fantastic and probably faster than anything we've ever done on Bitcoin. But what Lightning doesn't do well is payment reliability.
River, a Bitcoin-only exchange, said its Lightning Payment success rate was 99.7 percent on 308,000 transactions in August.
BitVM hopes that the transaction speed of the lightning network can reach 60%.
BitVM: 24 hour update.
After thousands of tweets and hours of posts and discussions, we know more about BitVM than we did yesterday. Here's a quick update:
Enjoyment
1. BitVM is a new computing paradigm that uses universal gate NAND (among others… pic.twitter.com/zBws7gOhjA)
– Bob Bodley, PhD | #BTC #ETH #ICP (@BobBodily) October 11, 2023
Related: Coinbase to integrate Bitcoin Lightning Network: CEO Brian Armstrong
The developer also emphasizes that BitVM is an alternative to the Lightning Network and anyone can transfer their BTC or Bitcoin-assets from a virtual machine to a cold storage or pre-existing location.
“No one is forcing you to send your money to a virtual machine. If you want your money safe, keep it safe.
‘Calculate anything' misconception
Super Testnet also clarified the potential misunderstanding by explaining that BitVM in its current state cannot compute “anything” according to the white paper.
We need to build more primitives to make anything run in it. He also pointed out that implementing SHA-256 and encryption are some of the required additions.
However, on October 12th, Supertestnet revealed that BitVM is performing basic functions.
Update: bitvm can now do *3* functions and I'm working on a site where you can play with it pic.twitter.com/bXYOZKx2GV
— Super Testnet (@super_testnet) October 12, 2023
Linus and SuperTestNet met at a Bitcoin conference 18 months ago and are working to bring Bitcoin up to the script level, he said.
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