Bridgeless Minting on Bitcoin

TL;DR: Read this to learn about a candidate to become the protocol used by Bitcoin to massively scale its capabilities to mint NFTs without resorting to Layer-2s, and while retaining Bitcoin’s Layer-1 as fully responsible for asset ownership.

Bitcoin is an incredible invention, widely regarded as the most secure Layer-1 blockchain for storing short and long-term value.

This privileged position is partly due to it being the first blockchain ever created, the immense hash power dedicated to securing the network, and its predictability. Interestingly, Bitcoin’s predictability stems from a factor that would be seen as a weakness for other blockchains: the protocol offers a comparatively limited number of features. For example, the lack of generic programmability on Bitcoin has led to the flourishing of novel use cases, such as DeFi, DAO governance, and NFTs, on other chains.

Until recently, Bitcoin’s lack of features was exhibited as virtue rather than a weakness.

Bitcoin’s recent journey

However, over the past two years, things have started to change at an incredible pace. Innovators are discovering ways to port those use cases that have flourished on other blockchains to Bitcoin, aiming to combine the best of both worlds: the most secure, long-term oriented chain where all interesting use cases can be built. The buzzword is that “Bitcoin is becoming a programmable blockchain.”

This paradigm shift is being driven by at least two different patterns.

First, a plethora of Layer-2s are being developed in an attempt to mirror Ethereum’s current situation. Creating secure Layer-2s on Ethereum is extremely challenging (currently, they all suffer from publicly-known security issues), and it is even harder on Bitcoin due to its less flexible Layer-1 protocol.

“The Price of Bridges” — A screenshot from L2beat, tracking known security issues of the most prominent L2s over Ethereum. Any text not in white font indicates a security issue, with details available by hovering the mouse over the text.

Second, a set of simpler off-chain protocols has been developed to enable the creation of both non-fungible tokens (ordinals-based Inscriptions, Jan ’23) and fungible tokens (ordinals-based BRC-20, Mar’23, and Runes, May’24). Unlike Layer-2s, these novel protocols are designed to perform just one function, and to rely on off-chain actors to interpret the data processed by the Bitcoin Layer-1.

In a bit over a year since their invention, BRC-20 token transactions have averaged 300K daily. During nearly the same period, more than 66 million inscriptions have been recorded on the Bitcoin chain, with over $466 million spent on the corresponding transaction fees.

The appetite for these innovations is clear, as evidenced by the substantial costs incurred to satisfy it. This is where bridgeless minting comes into play.

Bridgeless Minting for Bitcoin

Originally created by the LAOS Network Layer-1, the protocol offloads mint transactions from Ethereum-like chains, without removing them. It offloads the cost, but it does not take the assets away. Unlike with L2s, the ownership of all assets minted via this bridgeless pattern remains 100% on-chain on the original network (e.g., Ethereum), even if the gas cost to execute the mint is offloaded to a separate consensus system. Recipients of these assets see them in their standard Ethereum wallets and can trade them in their preferred marketplaces.

Check the LAOS Whitepaper for a comprehensive description, this post for a high level explanation, this post for a hands-on walkthrough, or go straight to mint your first Universal on Ethereum or Polygon with this simple on-boarding frontend.

LAOS is now working on integrating bridgeless minting for Bitcoin, which it sees as the next logical evolution following Inscriptions, BRC-20s, and Runes.

Schematic view of the patterns used by the main scaling solutions. On the right, some of the most popular Layer-2s, connected to Ethereum via bridge contracts typically implementing complex optimistic or ZK patterns. On the left, projects based on similar bridge patterns, trying to gain traction over Bitcoin, adding general programmability on top of scalability. The Lightning Network (bottom-left) stands out as a single-purpose off-chain approach. At the top, the LAOS Network approach, which does not require bridges, allows asset ownership to fully reside on the original chain. The Bitcoin →LAOS path is soon to be built.

This integration will enable a number of features that are impossible with current approaches. On the one hand, it will massively scale Bitcoin’s minting throughput at a fraction of the current cost, thereby enabling a plethora of new use cases, from massive tokenization of real-world assets to video games on Bitcoin.

On the other hand, it will bring the concept of dynamic NFTs to Bitcoin, which have been extensively used on other chains to build non-speculation-based applications, including video games and loyalty programs.

One key advantage is that the data will remain always on-chain, with ownership and transfers 100% secured by Bitcoin.

The vision for the Bridgeless Minting integration is to leverage the protocol developed for Runes by Casey Rodarmor (also the creator of Inscriptions). This protocol greatly simplified the previously existing BRC-20 protocol for fungible tokens. The goal is to extend it to execute features parallel to those of the Universal ERC-721 smart contract, enabling the offloading of all mints to the LAOS consensus system while retaining Bitcoin’s Layer-1 as fully responsible for asset ownership.

XMAS on the horizon

The LAOS Network is poised to make bridgeless minting for Bitcoin the next big thing and will allocate a significant portion of its Treasury Grants to builders who want to join the adventure.

These grants are open to all actors in the ecosystem that will enable Bridgeless Minting for Bitcoin, including Bitcoin wallets, marketplaces, and novel Bitcoin protocol developers.

Apply now or join the LAOS community to stay connected.