BitVM proposal in Bitcoin: What is it and what does it promise?

Bitcoin developer Robin Linus is proposing to bring off-chain smart contracts to Bitcoin without the need for a soft-fork. The developer, who has also published a white paper called BitVM, claims that “anything can be computed on the Bitcoin network”, just like on the Ethereum network.

BitVM proposal in Bitcoin: What is it and what does it promise?

Robin Linus, founder of ZeroSync, which works on scaling Bitcoin using zero-knowledge proof-of-stake, has published a white paper, BitVM, proposing new improvements for the Bitcoin network.

Unlike many changes in Bitcoin, the proposed new updates do not require any changes to the Bitcoin code. This is intended to prevent divisions and protracted debates among the community.

According to the white paper, BitVM is “a new style of computation developed to define Turing-computed Bitcoin contracts.”

Instead of performing complex calculations on the blockchain, the system can verify with off-chain calculations. As it is known, a similar scaling system called “optimistic roll-up” in the Ethereum network verifies many transactions off-chain and then transfers them to the main chain in pieces.

“It can be done without soft-fork”

Linus, the developer who wrote about the issue on Twitter, stated that with this development, Bitcoin contracts will be much more meaningful and the functionality that will be created with a soft fork can actually be achieved without this fork process. Linus also stated that this development will make games like poker and chess possible on the Bitcoin network.

Linus noted that, like many new proposals, a huge amount of off-chain computation and communication is required.

Criticisms

Some developers have already started to criticize this new project… Dan Robinson, a researcher at Paradigm, said that this new proposal is getting more attention than it should in the Bitcoin world:

This is getting way too much attention in Bitcoin world. The protocol only works for two parties, so it can’t be used in rollups or other multiparty applications. And Greg Maxwell proposed a much better protocol (“ZK contingent payments”) to solve the same problem 12 years ago.”

Adam Back: This is cool, but…

Adam Back, one of the oldest in the Bitcoin world, said that the same system already exists:

“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.”

In his response to Back, Linus acknowledged the similarity, but also said that there are major differences between the two systems.

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