- A Bitcoin developer has fronted an idea to have off-chain smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain
- Through a white paper published on October 9, the developer compares the smart contracts to those found on the Ethereum network
- The developer believes implementing the idea will allow anything to be computed on Bitcoin
Bitcoin developer Robin Linus has proposed bringing off-chain Ethereum-like smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain. In a white paper published on October 9, Linus believes introducing such capabilities on Bitcoin will enable the network to “compute anything.” The developer’s thoughts align with recent attempts, like the Ordinals project, aimed at linking Bitcoin with the NFT and DeFi world, a sign that the crypto community wants more from the Bitcoin protocol.
Ethereum-like Smart Contracts on Bitcoin
Dubbed “BitVM: Compute Anything on Bitcoin,” the white paper outlines a process of enabling Ethereum-like smart contracts on Bitcoin without requiring a soft or a hard fork. Linus disclosed that the contracts’ logic will be handled outside Bitcoin but verification will be done on-chain, a process similar to the optimistic rollups on Ethereum.
“Any computable function can be verified on Bitcoin”https://t.co/Itf9UHos0C pic.twitter.com/CLQv49Ydsg
— яobin linus (@robin_linus) October 9, 2023
According to the developer, implementing the proposal can help expand Bitcoin’s current capabilities to enable things like games, “verification on validity proofs” and allow the network’s native coin BTC to be used on other blockchains.
Linus however disclosed that his way of adding such capabilities to the network comes with some limitations such as only being a two-party system plus most of the heavy lifting being done outside the network.
Mixed Reactions to Proposal
The Bitcoin community has reacted to Linus’ proposal with most noting that it’s a good idea while others like Bitcoin Core contributor Adam Back expressed skepticism about the idea saying it’s “effectively a generalization of a two-party game.”
for people getting (over) excited, this is cool but effectively a generalization of a two-party game – it says right in the abstract – so it’s a bit like Greg Maxwell’s 2016 ZKP contingent payments implemented example https://t.co/OeHRsbFjud
— Adam Back (@adam3us) October 9, 2023
The proposal comes five years after Bitcoin developers proposed to sync full nodes using Zk- Snarks and four years since they launched a new smart contracting language.
With the proposal focusing on a two-party system, it’s to be seen whether the crypto community will embrace the idea.
