There seems to be more discussions on the topic of BTC Layer2 in the past two days, and I have also seen many people sharing and forwarding related content on social platforms. For example, some people are busy collecting airdrop points from B² Network (BSquared Network), some are sending Merlin Chain invitation codes everywhere, and some are busy doing BEVM’s Odyssey tasks...
The two projects B² Network and BEVM have been mentioned in Li Huawai’s previous articles. So today, let’s briefly talk about the Merlin Chain and take a look at the MERL Launchpad that many people have been paying attention to in the past two days. Is it worth participating and how to participate.
Launched by the Bitmap Tech team last month (January), Merlin Chain is a Layer 2 project based on the Bitcoin network. The project uses ZK-Rollup to compress a large number of transaction proofs into a simple checksum to improve transactions. Efficiency and scalability. The sequencer node on top of it is responsible for collecting and batching transactions, generating compressed transaction data, ZK state roots, and attestation via zkEVM. The compressed transaction data and ZK proofs are then uploaded to Taproot on Bitcoin L1 via the decentralized Oracle network. This Taproot is available to the entire network to ensure transparency and security.
Currently, Merlin Chain has connected 40 EVM chains, but the test network is now online, and its main network is expected to be online before the end of this month. In addition to this newly launched Merlin Chain project, the current main products of Bitmap Tech (formerly known as Recursiverse) include Bitmap Game (the metaverse on Bitcoin, users can use their bitmaps for social networking, games and transactions), BRC-420 Protocol (its blue box series has become one of the most popular Ordinals assets, as shown in the figure below), Recursiverse (a series of recursive applications on Bitcoin Layer 1, including Recursive Doodinals, Recursive BBS, etc.) and Project M (which is a Bitcoin Coin expansion solution, not yet launched).
Yesterday (February 5), Merlin Chain announced that 1% of the total token supply (i.e. 21 million MERL, the total supply of tokens is 2.1 billion) will be used for Launchpad through People's Launchpad, with an initial price of 0.00004762 USDT . People’s Launchpad is a token launch (issuance) platform established by People’s Alliance. As of the time of writing this article, Merlin Chain’s Launchpad has nearly 80,000 people participating. As shown below.
So, how do you get involved with MERL’s Launchpad?
Because People’s Launchpad is an invitation-only launch platform, an invitation code is required to log in normally. If you don’t have an invite code, you can easily find codes sent by others by searching for them with X (e.g. $ALLY or #PeoplesLaunchpad).
If you are too lazy to search on the X platform, you can try to use the following address directly:
https://launchpad.ally.build?id=1&inviteCode=QUSDZI
Also note that if you get the invitation code from a stranger, I recommend that you only use the corresponding code to log in to the Ally official website, and do not click on any links you are not sure about to avoid being phished.
But successfully logging in is only the first step. You also need to obtain a certain amount of Power (power value, which can be understood as a kind of points) before you have the opportunity to participate, because the higher the Power, the smaller the share of tokens you will receive from the Launchpad distribution. The bigger. Currently, there are three ways to obtain Power, namely staking ALLY, inviting friends, and holding BTC assets on the Merlin Chain main network. As shown below.
1. Pledge ALLY
ALLY is deployed on the Linea chain and is a People's Alliance community inscription initiated by Particle Network community members in conjunction with more than 50 protocols such as 1inch, Polyhedra, Altlayer, ZkFair, Hooked, SpaceID, and DODO. Simply put, ALLY is the inscription on the Linea network.
There are currently three main ways to obtain ALLY:
The first way is to purchase directly in the People’s Marketplace using ETH from the Linea network. As shown below.
The second way is that you can directly ask others to transfer it to you through the wallet. Because ALLY is also transferable.
The third way is to cast for free through the ally.build official website (but you need to pay a certain gas fee). As shown below.
If you have obtained ALLY through any of the above methods, you can directly participate in staking to obtain Power Points. You can stake up to 2 million ALLY, which means you can get up to 80,000 Power points through staking. Just click the DO IT button on the page. As shown below.
But one thing to be reminded here is that the maximum staking time for ALLY is 28 days, and the current cost of 2 million ALLY is around 1,400 USDT. However, the price of ALLY will fluctuate, and the liquidity of the inscription asset itself is relatively poor. This must be taken into consideration when participating in staking.
2. Bridge BTC to Merlin chain
If the Merlin Chain mainnet holds BTC assets, you can get 1000 Power points for every 0.00025 BTC held in the wallet, and each wallet address can get up to 80,000 Power points.
There are currently two ways to bridge BTC assets to the Merlin Chain mainnet:
The first way is to use the MetaMask wallet to directly bridge the WBTC/USDC/USDT of the EVM chain to the BTC of the Merlin chain through the Meson.fi full chain bridge. At present, everyone basically bridges BTC to the Merlin chain through this method.
The second is to use a Bitcoin wallet to directly bridge BTC assets to Merlin Chain through the Merlin Chain official bridge (not yet online). After BTC is transferred from L1 to L2, the assets you display on the Merlin chain will become MBTC. As shown below.
But what needs to be reminded here is that the above picture is only a demonstration interface, because as of the time of writing this article, the Merlin Chain official bridge website has not been officially launched. According to the official information given by Merlin: it will be launched soon! I don’t know exactly when it will be launched.
Another thing to note is that when bridging assets, you need to ensure that your Merlin BTC (i.e. MBTC) is in the same wallet as the one you use to participate in Launchpad. Moreover, it will take 7–14 days for the BTC you transferred to be transferred out of the Merlin mainnet.
3. Invite new members to join ALLY
In addition to staking ALLY and holding BTC assets on the Merlin Chain mainnet, inviting new members to join is the last way to obtain Power. Each time you invite a member to join, you will get an additional 200 Power points. As shown below.
So, is MERL’s Launchpad worth participating in?
First of all, Merlin Chain is the first project of People’s Launchpad, and it is still very popular.
Secondly, the starting valuation of MERL tokens in this Launchpad is only US$100,000 FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation), as shown in the figure below. According to this starting valuation, if you participate and can successfully obtain a certain number of tokens, the rate of return should be good. Of course, the premise here depends on how much share you can get in the end, but judging from the current number of participants, it should be quite large.
From my personal perspective, for ordinary users:
I do not recommend participating in staking. Currently, the risk of purchasing this is relatively high, unless you can bear the risk of ALLY fluctuations.
In terms of invitations, I estimate that ordinary users have no advantage. This is mainly due to the advantages of various big Vs and KOLs. Moreover, I found that many big Vs in There is no advertising fee, but from a certain perspective, this also shows that the project party understands marketing.
As for the Merlin Chain main network holding BTC assets, you need to participate according to your own circumstances.
To sum up, it seems that this MERL Launchpad is not of great significance for ordinary users to participate! Because judging from the current popularity, number of participants and situation, it is estimated that it will be difficult for ordinary users to get a relatively large share in the end. As of the time of writing this article, there are 304 people with more than 160,000 Power Points. I wonder how many people will be able to get the first MERL in this Launchpad?
Finally, please pay attention to the time. The deadline for Merlin Chain (MERL) Launchpad is 20:00 on February 10th, Beijing time.
In addition, according to the Merlin team, after the Merlin Chain mainnet is officially launched, some assets including BTC, Bitmap, BRC-420, BRC-20, etc. can also participate in the pledge Wa mine of its mainnet, which may continue to attract attention. Many people joined. However, the project side does not seem to have given a clear explanation of the specific pledge incentive method. Also, after the MERL token is officially launched, I also suggest that you focus on observation first, and don’t chase prices without thinking or rush in directly. What you need to know is that the current BTC Layer2 track belongs to the hot spot, and pigs will fly on the hot spot. , let the pig fly for a while first!
In short, the BTC Layer2 track is still relatively in its early stages, and you still have many opportunities. If you pay attention to or participate in some projects in advance, you should find some good opportunities. Below is a list of BTC L2 projects (containing more than 40 related projects) compiled by the BitVM Chinese community. I think they have compiled it very clearly and can be shared directly with everyone to understand as needed. As shown below.
Image source (i.e. full version form address):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oy8Wq3Eeo0cnnOB32MO6gs3o65j768tGKnfgQ9CLCRw/edit#gid=0
Well, we will share the content of this issue here for the time being. This is also the 405th article updated by Hua Li Huawai. We will continue to bring you more related sharing later. Interested friends can contact us through Hua Li Hua. Check out Li Huawai to learn more.
Finally, we need to remind you again that none of the projects mentioned in this article have any interest relationship with Hua Li Hua. Any investment behavior is risky. Please be sure to DYOR (Do Your Own Research) before making decisions.
注：以上内容只是个人角度观点及分析，仅作为科普学习和交流之用，不构成任何投资建议。加密市场为极高风险领域，请理性看待，提高风险防范意识，并遵守所在国家和地区的相关法律法规！