February 3rd 2024 | BMAN
Bitmap.tech has established the largest asset community in the Bitcoin ecosystem, holding the Blue Box, the first NFT in the Bitcoin ecosystem, valued at 350 million US dollars. With a community of 33,000 Bitmap holders, it also manages the BRC420 asset protocol, which holds the second-highest market value in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and offers the Merlin Chain as a Layer 2 scaling solution. Bitmap.tech will become one of the strongest players in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bitmap.tech is distinctive in its Layer 2 strategy. Unlike other Layer 2 solutions that prioritize building a second layer before accumulating assets, Bitmap.tech focused on establishing first-layer assets first and then developed L2. This approach has fostered strong user consensus for the second layer.
With the Blue Box valued at 200 million US dollars and a robust community of 33,000 Bitmap holders, Bitmap.tech possesses assets that ensure a solid user base from day one of the Merlin Chain launch. This represents a significant advantage that is unmatched by other Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions.
Assets First, Then Layer 2
Among all the Bitcoin Layer 2 platforms, Bitmap.tech owns the most influential Layer 1 asset community.
Bitmap.tech introduced the BRC420 asset protocol. The market value of BRC420's Blue Box has already surpassed 200 million US dollars, making it the most valuable NFT in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Furthermore, compared to the entire network's collections of 10K NFTs, Bitmap.tech's Blue Box is ranked just behind CryptoPunks and BAYC.
Unlike other Ordinals, which feature a ‘single inscription’, the BRC420 protocol enables the recursive combination of multiple inscriptions into one complex inscription. This allows BRC420 to support a much wider range of asset types compared to BRC20, from character images to entire game scripts, virtual machines, or even AI models. Therefore, these diverse assets can be integrated into BRC 420.
The BRC420 is composed of two primary components: the Metaverse Standard and the Royalty Standard. The Metaverse Standard establishes an open format for assets within the metaverse, promoting interoperability and flexibility. The Royalty Standard, on the other hand, implements a blockchain protocol dedicated to the creator economy, ensuring that creators are rewarded for their contributions.
To date, assets and games from over 1,000 teams have been launched using the BRC420 protocol. This includes a range of assets such as game characters, downloadable content (DLCs), HTML scripts, music, and videos. These assets have generated significant on-chain royalties. Collectively, these teams have accrued over 10 million US dollars in royalties through the BRC-420 protocol.
Ecosystem First, Then Layer2
Among all Bitcoin Layer2 solutions, Bitmap.tech possesses the strongest native BTC ecosystem:
The Bitmap browser and the BRC420 protocol were launched in succession, amassing a market value for BRC420 assets that exceeds 260 million US dollars across more than 20,000 independent addresses. At its zenith, the transaction volume eclipsed that of all other Bitcoin asset protocols. Furthermore, Bitmap offers native games such as Bitmap War, employs the recursive application RCSV, and features the Bitmap entry browser, Bitmap Explorer. Together, these elements form a cohesive ecosystem encompassing asset protocols, Layer 2, DApps, and community engagement.
To date, Bitmap.tech has garnered over 90% of the traffic for the Bitcoin Layer 1 native asset Bitmap, which boasts a market value of over 250 million US dollars and more than 33,500 independent addresses, standing as the preeminent Ordinals asset community. With a 1:1 correspondence to BTC blocks, Bitmap prides itself on full decentralization, embodying the quintessential Crypto Native and the most bona fide BTC metaverse. Bitmap.tech has launched an in-house editing tool for Bitmap, alongside a proprietary game engine and gaming platform, significantly bolstering the activity and transactions within Bitmap. Its user volume has outpaced that of Ethereum's Sandbox and Decentraland, rendering it the largest metaverse community in the crypto realm. Bitmap.tech is poised to extend Bitmap's reach across the entire crypto ecosystem, with the potential to forge pathways into new markets.
A Pragmatic Layer2 Solution — Merlin Chain
The Bitmap.tech team is well-versed in the strengths and weaknesses of various BTC stacks and has crafted a pragmatic technical solution for Bitcoin Layer 2: the Merlin Chain. Founder Jeff, a seasoned entrepreneur with extensive experience in gaming, the metaverse, and Bitcoin, asserts that the key to success in Bitcoin Layer 2 is having influence in Layer 1 asset protocols, owning high-value assets, and maintaining a substantial community base. Those who command these elements may become the frontrunners in the space. This mirrors the early days of Polygon within the Ethereum ecosystem, which, as a sidechain, became a leader among Layer 2 solutions. Its success was not solely due to its technological excellence but because it was the first to build consensus and a vast ecosystem.
Currently, no Bitcoin Layer 2 is perfect, and given Bitcoin’s existing architecture, it cannot support a ‘technically pure’ L2 or Roll-up because the BTC is unable to verify transactions on the second layer.
As such, Merlin Chain, places a greater emphasis on practicality and is underpinned by a vision for the long term.
After the mainnet launch, Merlin Chain will persist in evolving, planning to integrate pivotal modules such as the ZK-Rollup, a decentralized oracle network, and Bitcoin on-chain fraud proofs. It aims to leverage ZK technology to enhance data compression before it’s uploaded to the Bitcoin network, thereby ensuring the security of the ZK state root and ZK proof. Additionally, Merlin Chain commits to anchoring BTC on the first layer network, laying a solid foundation for the challenge mechanism.
Merlin Chain is not only EVM-compatible but also features an account abstraction structure that enables the usage of both Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets. It will act as a bridge for various native assets from Bitcoin’s first layer to its second layer, incorporating Cobo’s MPC solution to guarantee that all funds are non-custodial and secure. Merlin’s comprehensive solution will undergo audits by multiple companies and will be open-sourced.
Distinct from other Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions, Merlin Chain will maintain support for native Bitcoin wallets and addresses, employing the Particle network’s account abstraction solution. This allows users to manage assets on Merlin Chain through various methods, including Unisat or OKX Wallet, as well as email and mobile phone login.
Set for an early February launch, Merlin Chain has already integrated 18 Dapp ecosystems. These include the DEX iZUMi, cross-chain bridge Mesonfi, Polyhedra, native Bitcoin asset applications like Bitmap Game and Bitmap War, the native BRC-420 DeFi application Mineral, and other prominent ecosystem projects such as the native Bitcoin stablecoin BitSmiley.
Bitcoin Layer 2: The War Just Started
Protocols such as Ordinals, Atomicals, and Taproot Assets have produced a vast number of assets on Bitcoin. Once a large volume of assets is minted, the ensuing phase could be Bitcoin’s DeFi Summer, potentially funneling Bitcoin’s 900 billion dollar market cap into Layer2. This could result in a Total Value Locked (TVL) that surpasses the entire Ethereum ecosystem. Within this expansive ecosystem, Bitcoin Layer2 is poised to see tens of billions in TVL and DeFi opportunities.
With numerous Bitcoin Layer2 contenders vying for dominance, the question arises: who will be the first to achieve a significant breakthrough?
Bitmap.tech holds the most prestigious NFT asset in the Bitcoin ecosystem, the Blue Box (BRC420), and is the leading asset community (Bitmap+BRC420), representing the most formidable native assets and ecosystem. Among the various Bitcoin Layer2 participants, Bitmap.tech has already secured a prominent position.
The Metaverse Standard protocol by Bitmap.tech is poised to propel Bitmap across the entire crypto ecosystem, potentially becoming the largest crypto metaverse. We strongly believe Bitmap.tech will continue to lead Bitcoin towards a more thriving ecosystem.
About ABCDE
ABCDE is a VC focused on leading investment in top Crypto Builders. It was co-founded by Huobi Cofounder Du Jun and former Internet and Crypto entrepreneur BMAN，who both have been in the Crypto industry for more than 10 years. The co-founders of ABCDE have built multi-billion dollar companies in the Crypto industry from the ground up, including listed companies(1611.HK), exchanges(Huobi), SAAS companies(ChainUP.com), media(CoinTime.com), and developers platforms(BeWater.xyz).
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