AUSTIN, Texas — Rootstock, founder of Bitcoin's Layer 2 protocol, is building on developer Robin Lynas' controversial BitVM design last year to improve programmability in the oldest blockchain. revealed detailed plans for a new “BitVMX” project aimed at improving the
Sergio Demian Lerner, a Buenos Aires-based programmer known for his early research into Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto's mining activities and later for helping develop the Ethereum blockchain, said on Wednesday: The project was discussed on stage at the Bitcoin++ conference in Austin, Texas.
“We have a roadmap to get this done within a year,” Lerner said during his presentation. “We're moving full steam ahead.”
BitVM, released by Linus last year, is a 15-year-old blockchain breakthrough that theoretically facilitates the development of programmable layer 2 networks similar to those used in the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. Widely cited by Bitcoin developers. Make trading cheaper and faster. Key to the project's promise is that BitVM requires no changes to the underlying Bitcoin code. Due to the blockchain's decentralized governance, there is often no consensus among developers regarding major upgrades.
Last month, Lerner said in an exclusive interview last week on CoinDesk's podcast The Protocol that he was working on a new project with colleagues, although he did not provide details.
Last week, Rootstock Labs published a blog post about the effort, referencing Linus' original concept and arguing that “theory and practice are two very different things.”
“The BitVMX research team plans to build on this initial discovery with further innovations to create an improved development framework for running programs on Bitcoin,” according to the blog post. “The name pays homage to BitVMX’s origins and emphasizes our focus on extending Bitcoin and accelerating the development of next-generation sidechains and Layer 2.”
Rootstock Labs added that “a team of core contributors is working on a public roadmap that will outline proposed improvements to the network within the next 12 months.”
According to the accompanying whitepaper, “The BitVMX framework is focused on running fully compliant RISC-V processors that are programmable using a standard compilation toolchain to run any CPU on top of Bitcoin. This is a summary of the technical description of the new system. Facilitates “myriad use cases”.
