Weekly #22
January 17, 2025 - Week 3
Greetings everyone! Hope you are having a great Friday.
As we do each week, here's our article selection selection with the most relevant articles in the Disputable Computing scene. Take a look, and let's keep on learning 🤓:
A new paper introduces Union: A Trust-minimized Bridge for Rootstock, designed to enable secure BTC transfers between Bitcoin and secondary blockchains.
Using a 1-of-n honest participant model with a multi-party BitVMX system, it ensures strong security without relying on majority trust. Key innovations include reusable security bonds for capital efficiency, enablers to manage functionary participation, a flexible light client framework, and optimized time-lock mechanisms.
arxiv.org
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Union: A Trust-minimized Bridge for Rootstock
We present Union, a trust-minimized bridge protocol that enables secure transfer of BTC between Bitcoin and a secondary blockchain. The growing ecosystem of blockchain systems built around Bitcoin has created a pressing need for secure and efficient bridges to transfer BTC between networks while preserving Bitcoin's security guarantees. Union employs a multi-party variant of BitVMX, an optimistic proving system on Bitcoin, to create a bridge that operates securely under the assumption that at least one participant remains honest.
Fairgate's co-founder Sergio Lerner explains Bitcoin bridging challenges, such as scripting limitations and decentralization trade-offs in BitVM protocols. He describes BitVMX as a resource-efficient approach for secure validating bridges, enabling participation in broader blockchain applications.
cointelegraph.com
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Breaking down Bitcoin bridges: Insights from RootstockLabs
Bitcoin’s scripting language, while reliable and secure, was not built to support the complex computations necessary for validating crosschain transactions.
“Bitcoin did not have a language expressive enough to support [decentralized bridges],” Lerner explained. This constraint has historically limited efforts to build fully decentralized and trust-minimized bridges.
Babylon Labs partners with Fiamma to develop a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge for Cosmos chains, leveraging BitVM2. This aims to enhance Bitcoin's interoperability and unlock value for other ecosystems.
cointelegraph.com
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Babylon Labs Brings New Momentum to Bitcoin ZK Tech Through Bridge to Cosmos Chains
Developers like Babylon Labs and Fiamma are aiming to unlock the deep wells of value stored in BTC to finance other ecosystems and allow it to be transacted on blockchains that are free of some of Bitcoin's limitations of speed and scale.
Ola introduces OlaChain, Onis, and Massive to tackle Bitcoin's scalability and interoperability challenges. OlaChain leverages ZK technology and BitVM2 for secure Layer 2 solutions, while Onis acts as a trust-minimized ZK relayer for cross-chain bridges. Massive connects users as active participants in the ecosystem, rewarding them for network contributions.
medium.com
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Bridging the Bitcoin Ecosystem: The Role of Ola Chain, Onis, and Massive
The explosive growth of the BRC-20 protocol in 2023 significantly increased transaction activity on the Bitcoin network, sparking urgent discussions about how to address Bitcoin’s performance limitations. As the Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem continues to flourish, the focus has shifted not only to enhancing scalability but also to expanding Bitcoin’s use cases beyond payments and enabling the growth of a diverse ecosystem.
That's a wrap! Hope you enjoyed this edition of the Fairgate Weekly. We'll be seeing you next week with a new curated selection of articles about the Disputable Computing ecosystem.
Thanks again!