An easy-to-understand explanation of Bitcoin's second-layer network

链捕手ChainCatcher · 2023-04-07T07:10:05.000Z
Author: James XYC, core developer of MAP Protocol, Forbes Web3 Innovation Pioneer Preface essay Many people say, you are doing cross-chain, why do you write so much that is not related to cross-chain? I previously wrote about stablecoins and decentralized computing public chains, and now I write about Bitcoin L2. First of all, I am a member of the encryption community; secondly, I participate in the core development of MAP Protocol; and finally, as a believer in the Satoshi Nakamoto consensus, I am also an active evangelist in the Bitcoin community. In addition, I am also actively promoting other technical solutions that are beneficial to the development of the industry. In short, I will pay attention to and promote anything that is conducive to the healthy development of the industry. The following is the text:
Author: James XYC, MAP Protocol core developer, Forbes Web3 Innovation Pioneer
 
Preface Essay
Many people ask me, you are working on cross-chain, why do you write so much that is not related to cross-chain? I have written about stablecoins, decentralized computing public chains, and now I am writing about Bitcoin L2. First of all, I am a member of the crypto community; secondly, I participate in the core development of MAP Protocol; finally, as a believer in Nakamoto Consensus, I am also an active evangelist in the Bitcoin community.
In addition, I am also actively promoting other technical solutions that are beneficial to the development of the industry. In short, as long as it is beneficial to the healthy development of the industry, I will pay attention to and promote it. The following is the text:
 
1. What is Bitcoin L2?
 
key point: 
1) As secure as Bitcoin
2) Support smart contract programmable digital currency
3) Support application development
4) Faster than the Bitcoin network
Bitcoin L2 refers to the robust support of Bitcoin Nakamoto Consensus for bookkeeping. Forget it, let’s not talk about these words that sound difficult to everyone. To put it bluntly, the bookkeeping and security of this L2 layer chain rely on Bitcoin miners, and this L2 layer can add Turing completeness to support smart contracts. In addition, the speed can be faster than the Bitcoin network.
 
2. How is Bitcoin L2 implemented?
 
Bitcoin L2 first has a virtual machine development layer for developers to develop; secondly, it can have its own consensus mechanism, but the blocks must be written into the Bitcoin network. The BTC network is UTXO, and each block can support the writing of other texts, so Bitcoin L2 validators write L2 accounting blocks into Bitcoin blocks, so that Bitcoin miners can package transactions.
How to decide which Validator to write?
A random number is used here, and this random number is determined by the Bitcoin hash value. The Bitcoin hash value is an unpredictable on-chain random number, so the possibility of Validator cheating is reduced to a minimum.
 
3. How does Bitcoin L2 cross-chain $BTC to L2?
 
As we all know, the Bitcoin network has no Turing machines and no smart contracts. Any entry or exit of any asset requires a smart contract to be truly unprivileged. However, this operation cannot be unprivileged on the Bitcoin network, so the current solution can only be a multi-signature with privileged roles, which is the same model as WBTC. The credibility of this model is highly questionable. Currently, Hong Kong regulatory bills require multi-signature custody solutions to apply for a license.
Therefore, centralization + Hong Kong government regulatory endorsement is a better solution. Users do not have to worry about BTC being stolen or multi-signature parties stealing, nor do they have to worry about the government not paying for theft.
It is important to emphasize that no matter how many security assumptions are made, multi-signatures are always risky. For example, three times the native currency must be pledged to host a corresponding value of BTC. In fact, everyone knows what the price of altcoins is like, right? And LayerZero's use of Oracle nodes to supervise multi-signatures is even more interesting. If supervision is introduced, why are passers-by A, B, and C responsible for supervision? Is the testimony credible? How can you find them responsible if it is lost? Letting government supervision endorsement may be a better choice.
 
4. Why is MAP Protocol’s MAP Relay Chain not made into Bitcoin L2?
 
First, MAP Protocol is based on the data isomorphism of various signature algorithms and hash algorithms of heterogeneous chains through the MAP Relay Chain. Secondly, is the security of the relay chain better if Bitcoin miners are used? This is indeed a better security solution. However, if it is just an L1 public chain, this solution is acceptable.
However, for the relay chain of the cross-chain exclusive chain, this is not possible. This is because there is a problem in Bitcoin mining where two miners mine the same block at the same time, which requires a rollback. In a cross-chain environment, if the transaction has reached the target chain, it is meaningless to roll back the relay chain, because the target chain will not cooperate with you to roll back. So it is very regrettable that MAP Rela Chain itself cannot find a solution to be Bitcoin's L2 for the time being.
However, the verification nodes of POS mechanism public chains, including Ethereum and Cosmos, are all using the world's top five cloud vendors, which makes the underlying infrastructure very dependent on centralized giants. Therefore, MAP Relay Chain is also studying other decentralized individual miner decentralization solutions to solve the problem of centralized cloud controlling the underlying ledger accounting hardware environment of the blockchain.
 
5. Is Bitcoin L2 more promising or is Ethereum L2 more promising?
 
The answer is definitely BTC.
BTC accounts for about 70% of the assets in the cryptocurrency circle, while Ethereum accounts for less than 30%. The huge asset size of BTC speaks for itself. In addition, everyone outside the circle knows about Bitcoin, but only insiders know about Ethereum. However, as mentioned in the article, the core problem that Bitcoin L2 is facing now is how to make people feel at ease to cross BTC to Bitcoin L2. Obviously, if there is no regulatory endorsement for this link, it is not credible. But this is just a means, there is no technical barrier, and the privileged government of Hong Kong is now open to supervision.
 
6. Will MAP Protocol use cross-chain technology without privileged roles to connect the Bitcoin L2 network to the cross-chain network?
 
The answer is definitely yes.
MAP Protocol has already connected to Ethereum, NEAR, Polygon, and BNB Chain. In the next phase, Klaytn, PlatON, Cosmos Hub, Polkadot, and Conflux will be launched. And research on the access to Bitcoin L2 network projects has begun.
Some friends asked me the difference between MAP Protocol and other cross-chain projects. I think there is no comparability at all because MAP Protocol is unique. Why?
MAP Protocol is the only cross-chain technology that has no privileged roles and can cover various heterogeneous chains. The most important thing is that it has been put into operation. It took four years to develop and launch it. LayerZero, which is often asked, hides its relationship with FTX and says how much money it has raised, but ignores whether its technical solution is reliable. Simply put, LayerZero uses Oracle supervision + MPC multi-signature for cross-chain verification, which has collusion risks and has already exposed security issues. This solution obviously shows the lack of cryptographic foundation in its technical team. In terms of cross-chain, other ZK cross-chains have only launched cross-chains on one chain or have not been launched at all. It will take many years to make it work.
MAP Protocol has launched the first full-chain payment exchange application Butter. Users can use any coin to exchange for any coin on any chain. Users can forget about gas coins, USDC, chains, and KYC, and happily pay across chains (experience link: https://www.butterswap.io/). Although the first version only launched a few coins, it has exceeded 1,000 cross-chain payment exchanges in less than 5 days, and the amount exceeded 6M US dollars. In addition, MAP Protocol ecosystem partners are also actively developing full-chain lending, full-chain Oracle and other products. Focus on BUIDL, just to better serve the crypto industry.
 
7. Off topic: About the Chinese project
 
Recently, people on Twitter have been arguing about whether Chinese projects are scams.
The president of Bixin and I have been actively promoting people not to worship foreign things, and it seems to have achieved good results. However, there are still many people who curse and say that Chinese people are cheating. Here I would like to share an article I wrote about the history of the cryptocurrency circle. Let's take a look at whether there are more scammers in the West or the East in the Web3 industry? What are the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western projects? Who will the future belong to?
In addition, for those who say that all Chinese people are scammers and foreign projects are good, I will also briefly reveal a "black secret" to you: there are a lot of projects in the circle that have invited foreigners who graduated from prestigious universities to be fake founders. Those foreigners pay 3,000-7,000 US dollars a month to invest in what you like. I won't name the projects, anyway, the coins in the Twitter signatures of those who curse Chinese projects the most, I think all of them are fake foreign projects, which is really ironic.
Okay, no more talk. Continue to focus on BUIDL and truly promote the healthy development of the industry!