OP_NET launches Bitcoin DeFi push without bridges or wrapped BTC

1 hour ago

OP_NET said it is launching a “SlowFi” decentralized concern (DeFi) stack connected Bitcoin that uses modular Bitcoin transactions and autochthonal BTC fees alternatively than bridges, wrapped assets oregon a abstracted state token.

According to a Thursday merchandise shared with Cointelegraph, the task is portion of a broader propulsion to bring trading and yield-style enactment straight onto Bitcoin’s basal furniture alternatively of routing it done sidechains, bridges oregon adjacent networks. OP_NET is betting immoderate users volition judge slower and much costly transactions successful speech for staying afloat connected Bitcoin.

According to OP_NET co-founder Frederic Fosco, who goes by Danny Plainview, applications tally done modular Bitcoin (BTC) transactions utilizing Taproot-based spends, portion the platform’s NativeSwap exemplary is designed to enactment token swaps without wrapped BTC oregon a abstracted state asset. Plainview told Cointelegraph that each transaction connected OP_NET is “just a Bitcoin transaction with BTC arsenic the lone state asset.”

The motorboat lands successful the mediate of a growing combat wrong Bitcoin implicit whether DeFi-style and data-heavy uses of artifact abstraction fortify the network’s interest marketplace oregon magnitude to spam that crowds retired monetary transactions.

Plainview said a swap would typically outgo astir $1 to $2 nether mean interest conditions and astir $10 to $20 erstwhile blocks are congested, due to the fact that users wage lone modular Bitcoin web fees alternatively than a abstracted state token.

OP_NET describes the exemplary arsenic “SlowFi,” arguing that Bitcoin’s astir 10-minute artifact times and congestion-driven exit friction tin marque liquidity stickier and nutrient longer-lived DeFi cycles than faster chains.

Critics accidental OP_NET brings Ethereum-style DeFi bloat

Plainview framed layer-1 DeFi arsenic a mode to enactment miner gross arsenic artifact subsidies decline, arguing that “miners are bleeding” owed to Bitcoin’s halving schedule. “The lone happening that keeps miners solvent is simply a interest market,” helium said, insisting that OP_NET does not modify Bitcoin consensus.

That presumption has drawn disapproval from Bitcoin users who reason that pushing DeFi-style enactment onto furniture 1 dilutes Bitcoin’s monetary absorption oregon clogs artifact abstraction with nonessential transactions. In caller posts connected X, immoderate critics described OP_NET arsenic an effort to bring Ethereum-style crypto infrastructure onto Bitcoin.

Some maximalists argued that immoderate effort to grow Bitcoin’s usage cases beyond wealth made its proponents “sh*tcoiners” larping arsenic Bitcoiners.

Plainview pushed back, saying that immoderate fee-paying Taproot transaction should beryllium treated arsenic a morganatic usage of artifact space.

He warned that drafting motivation lines astir valid transactions handed de facto power of Bitcoin to whoever defines those categories. He said:

“The full constituent is that cipher controls it.”

OP_NET keeps DeFi connected Bitcoin basal layer

OP_NET enters a tract already populated by earlier attempts to bring programmability to Bitcoin, including done RSK and Stacks.

RSK operates arsenic a abstracted Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible sidechain with its ain RBTC state token and a federated BTC peg, meaning users determination worth disconnected mainnet and spot a federation to negociate the bridge.

Stacks, by contrast, is simply a Bitcoin-anchored layer-2 with its ain STX token and sBTC mechanism, executing astute contracts connected a chiseled concatenation that settles periodically to Bitcoin alternatively than wrong L1 transactions.

By keeping execution and fees straight connected Bitcoin and avoiding wrapped BTC oregon caller state assets, Plainview is betting that immoderate users volition judge slower, much costly transactions successful speech for staying wholly connected Bitcoin’s basal layer.

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