Cryptocurrency
Unlocking Bitcoin’s Potential: Introducing Merlin Chain, a Native L2 Solution
[PRESS RELEASE – NewYork, United States, January 31st, 2024]
This week, the much-anticipated Bitcoin L2 solution Merlin Chain went live on its testnet, while its mainnet is scheduled to be launching within a month as well.
Bitcoin’s Network Congestion Dilemma and Scaling Solutions
The evolution of Ordinals over the past year has brought the attention back to the Bitcoin ecosystem after a long period. While enhancing the excitement of the bitcoin ecosystem, it has also increased the exhaustion of network resources. The increasingly high cost of transactions, coupled with the rising price of Bitcoin itself, has added further congestion to the network and discouraged new users from becoming interested in Bitcoin.
(Bitcoin Daily Average Transaction Fee $: YCharts)
The idea of developing an EVM-compatible L2 network has been recognized as the one that would deliver the results first due to the simpleness of its implementation path.
Merlin Chain is also one of the EVM-compatible L2 chains, being developed by Bitmap Tech (formerly Recursiverse) , the team that built BRC-420 protocols and Bitmap.game, and is highly valued by the community due to the team’s past successes.
BRC-420
The BRC-420 protocol supports the combination/recursion of any file format to form a more complex inscription. Whether it’s a character image, a game script, a virtual machine or an AI model, it can become an asset on Bitcoin.
Its core asset, the Blue Box, has risen from an inscription cost of $0.15 to an ATH floor price of $26,000, and other assets such as Mineral and This Song About NFTs are among the most actively traded assets on the OKX market. It now has 1000+ developers and 600+ collections, and has been an excellent performer even during the bear market, the price only going up and never falling.
Bitmap.Game
Bitmap.Game is a fully on-chain, fully decentralized, fair-launch metaverse project. It is based on the Digital Matter Theory that underlies Bitcoin, and is open-sourced so that it can be run or verified by any client, reflecting the concept of “client agnosticism” in fully onchain games.
During this time, Bitmap’s market capitalization has risen from $3 million to a ATH of $290 million. With more than 30,000 holders, Bitmap has surpassed the Sandbox as the metaverse asset with the highest number of holders across all blockchains.
Unlocking Bitcoin’s Potential Through Innovative Magic
Merlin Chain believes that L2 of Bitcoin should not just be about transferring money inexpensively, or just about being able to have the DApps, but should be about further innovating to unlock the potential of Bitcoin through its native assets, users and protocols.
For example, as Bitmap is a completely decentralized asset, how to make games based on it, so that Bitmap users can enter various meta-universes at a low cost; or for the DeFi protocols based on BRC-420, how to give two-way empowerment to NFT and FT; and for minting inscriptions, how to mint L1 assets on L2 in a more cost-effective and flexible way. Only these “Bitcoin-native” innovations can continue to empower the ecosystem, rather than replicating the way Ethereum works.
So far, Merlin Chain has built a powerful DApp ecosystem, the liquidity concerns have been effectively addressed, and is planning for further expansion.
Leveraging ZK-Rollup for Efficient and Secure Scaling
The diverse ecosystem and assets also imply higher throughput requirements and some safety risks. To solve this problem, Merlin Chain has adopted ZK-Rollup which enables the compression of a large number of transaction proofs into a simple check-sum to improve transaction efficiency and scalability.
The sequencer nodes on Merlin Chain are responsible for collecting and batching transactions, generating compressed transaction data, ZK state roots, and proofs via zkEVM. The compressed transaction data and ZK Proofs are then uploaded via the decentralized Oracle network to the taproot on Bitcoin L1, which is available to the entire network to ensure transparency and security.
The decentralized Oracle network nodes will be required to stake $BTC to prevent improper activities. Users can initiate challenges to the ZK-Rollup based on compressed data, ZK state roots, and ZK Proof. Successful challenges result in a rollback to the last verified state, and the forfeiture of the Oracle node’s locked $BTC, ensuring the system’s security and trustworthiness.
Through the integration of these technologies, Merlin Chain has shown its superior technical capabilities and is on track to build an efficient, secure, and native Bitcoin L2 solution.
Native Integration – Merlin Chain’s Bitcoin-Centric Approach
Compared to other Bitcoin L2s that are making attempts at the moment, one of the key features of Merlin Chain is that it is “Bitcoin Native”.
As a strong believer in Bitcoin for many years, Merlin Chain is extremely committed to the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem, and seeks to bring more users and assets to Bitcoin through their work, rather than serving other ecosystems in the name of Bitcoin. As such, Merlin Chain places a high value on the native bitcoin nature of its ecosystem’s projects and users.
Merlin Chain supports bitcoin-native wallets. Empowered by the Particle Network’s account abstraction, users can use their bitcoin wallets to seamlessly switch between L1 and L2 . Users can also experience $BTC swaps with other tokens, such as stablecoins, at any time without having to switch to an EVM wallet.
In addition, Merlin Chain will support most of the major protocols on Bitcoin L1, including, but not limited to, BRC-20, Bitmap, BRC-420, Atomicals, SRC20, and Pipe. All inscriptions on L1 will be automatically whitelisted by Merlin Chain, allowing users to safely and affordably trade on it.
In line with its pursuit of “Bitcoin Native”, Merlin Chain plans to adopt BRC-20 as its governance token. This makes a lot more sense than other Bitcoin L2s that are currently using Ethereum standard tokens as governance tokens. The token will be released through a fair launch, with the exception of a small portion that will be distributed to VCs and the team, which will be given a 48-month release period that will not start within two years, demonstrating the team’s and investors’ confidence in Merlin Chain.
Bridging the Gap – Simplifying Bitcoin Adoption and Fuel Growth
Another tricky issue for the builders in the Bitcoin ecosystem is the lack of new users and new money coming in. While the Ordinals things have continued to be on fire, the number of active address has not seen significant growth. It is just the same group of people involved in different projects. A very fundamental reason for this is the complexity of Bitcoin. As well as the need to download a Bitcoin wallet, inscribing is also not very easy to understand, and users will need to spend at least two blocks of their time inscribing, as well as three blocks of their time for confirmation, which is complicated and time-consuming.
(Daily Active Bitcoin Address: Glassnode)
Merlin Chain will solve this problem. Currently, Merlin Chain has been connected to 40 Ethereum chains, so for those users who are not familiar with Bitcoin, they can use their familiar wallets, such as MetaMask, and their familiar assets, such as stablecoins, $ETH, $BNB, etc. to interact on Merlin Chain. Users don’t need to know the principles behind Bitcoin, or even what BRC-20 and Atomicals are, before they can experience Bitcoin in its native manner in their familiar way.
For this purpose, Merlin Chain is going to integrate the first multi-chain inscription DApp, which will allow users to inscribe assets on other layers, including Bitcoin L1, on Merlin Chain. It will only take one block to wait for. At the same time, a launchpad will also be available on Merlin Chain, with a mechanism that allows every inscription launched on it to be valued at 100,000 FDV, allowing more users to easily purchase assets such as the BRC-20/ BRC-420/ Atomicals/ Runes at a very low price. Additionally, as part of its commitment to decentralization, Merlin Chain is going to release most of its governance tokens to the community.
Users can stay tuned for the upcoming mainnet launch – the future of Bitcoin is about to unfold with Merlin Chain at the helm.
About Merlin Chain
Merlin Chain is a Bitcoin Layer2 that integrates ZK-Rollup network, decentralized oracle network, and on-chain BTC fraud proof modules. Merlin Chain is committed to empowering Bitcoin’s native assets, protocols, and products on Layer1 through its Layer2 network, to Make Bitcoin Fun Again. Merlin Chainis a subsidiary product line of Bitmap Tech, a premier OG team boasting an overall market cap exceeding $500 million. The BRC-420 “Blue Box” collection under Bitmap Tech has become one of the hottest assets on Ordinals.
Users can start following Merlin Chain’s Twitter for more updates.
Contact
Jeff
Merlin Chain
bitmap@bitmap.tech
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TL;DR
- Due to recent growth, Solana and its projects have gained popularity.
- Ecosystem meme coins like Dogewifhat (WIF) and Bonk Inu (BONK) have seen significant declines after a substantial surge earlier this year.
The Unsurprising Leader
Solana and numerous projects built on it have brimming in popularity in 2024. Some factors that could have contributed to this might be SOL’s bull run at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the growing community, and innovations in the ecosystem.
The crypto analytics platform Santiment recently outlined the top 10 Solana-based projects in terms of development activity in the past 30 days.
Somewhat expected, the first spot belongs to Solana itself, which collected a score of 186.33. It is worth noting that the protocol’s native token – SOL – has been experiencing a downfall since the end of July, plunging by approximately 30% and currently trading at around $127 (per Coingecko’s data).
Wormhole holds the second position with a ratio of 90.5. It acts as a bridge connecting various blockchain networks, such as Solana, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and others. It enables users to transfer digital assets and data across these blockchains without a centralized intermediary.
Pyth Network is third, with a score of 68. It operates as a decentralized oracle network where multiple providers contribute to a collective data feed.
JITO and Neon round up the top 5 list. The other Solana-based projects down the line include Drift, Orca, Helium IOT, Helium Mobile, and Metaplex.
The Missing Ones
It is interesting to note that meme coins, which are part of Solana’s ecosystem, did not make the list. Such tokens, including dogwifhat (WIF), Bonk Inu (BONK), and many more, were among the top-trending topics in the crypto space at the start of the year due to their skyrocketing prices.
However, their progress has stalled as of late. WIF – the biggest Solana-based meme coin in terms of market capitalization – currently trades at around $1.52, representing more than a 70% decline from the ATH registered in April.
BONK (the second-largest) is worth approximately $0.00001666 as of the moment, or 60% less than the peak in May.
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Bitcoin’s nosedives continued in the past 24 hours as the asset slumped from an intraday high of $57,000 to under $53,000 within hours.
The altcoins are also in the red, and the total crypto market cap has dumped to $2 trillion for the first time in over a month.
BTC’s Troubles Keep Coming
The primary cryptocurrency lost the coveted $60,000 level last week, and the true downfall followed suit. Aside from a brief attempt to overcome that line on September 3, the bears have been predominantly in control, which culminated yesterday.
Before that, it was rejected a couple of times and marked lower daily highs. A relief rally came on Friday when the US released the job report for August, which showed that there was a slight decline in the unemployment rates.
BTC reacted quickly with a price increase from $55,500 to $57,000. However, that turned out to be a false breakout, and the cryptocurrency headed south immediately after. In a matter of minutes, it plummeted to $54,000 before the bears initiated another leg down that pushed it to a monthly low of $52,700 (on Bitstamp).
Despite recovering to just over $54,000 now, it is still 4% down on the day and more than 8% in the past seven days. Its market cap has plunged to $1.070 trillion, while its dominance over the alts is down to 53.5%.
Alts in Red Yet Again
The bearish scenario repeated once again, and the altcoins are back in red. Ethereum is among the leaders in this adverse trend, having lost over 4% of value. As a result, it now struggles at $2,250. BNB is down by 3%, XRP by 3%, and SOL by 2.5%.
DOGE has dumped the most from the larger-cap alts. The OG meme coin has seen 5% of its value evaporate over the past day and is below $0.1.
Further losses come from the likes of TON, BCH, SHIB, LTC, OKB, XMR, and many others.
The total crypto market cap has declined by another $50 billion and is down to $2 trillion on CG.
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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has pledged to donate all Layer 2 (L2) tokens he holds to support public goods within the Ethereum ecosystem or broader charitable causes.
This announcement comes a few days after accusations that he had sold millions in Ether (ETH) for personal gain.
Vitalik Buterin Denies Profit Motive
Buterin was quick to respond to the allegations, emphasizing that he has not sold any ETH for personal profit since 2018. Instead, he clarified that any proceeds from his ETH sales have been directed toward projects that contribute to the Ethereum ecosystem or other charitable initiatives.
In a September 5 update, he expanded on his stance, pledging to donate all L2 tokens he holds, including not-yet-liquid assets, to support similar causes.
He wrote, “All proceeds will be donated, again either to support public goods within the Ethereum ecosystem or broader charity (e.g., biomedical R&D). I also do not intend to invest into L2s or other token projects in the foreseeable future.”
He explained that his aim in funding projects is to support initiatives he believes are important, particularly in situations where other parts of the ecosystem may not fully recognize their value.
The Allegations
On August 30, an X user accused him of selling over $2 million worth of ETH shortly after posting a positive update about Ethereum’s future.
Later on, Lookonchain also revealed that Vitalik had transferred 800 ETH, worth around $2 million, to a multi-signature wallet. Shortly after, the wallet swapped 190 ETH for 477,000 USDC.
Further analysis from Lookonchain indicated that on August 9, he had moved an additional 3,000 ETH, valued at over $8 million, to the same multi-sig wallet.
These transfers fueled speculation that the Ethereum co-founder was liquidating his Ether holdings to realize profits.
Buterin had previously disclosed that his entire Ether holdings came from the Ethereum pre-mining period, which allocated 11.9 million ETH (about 10% of the total supply) to early contributors. As one of them, he received 700,000 ETH for his role in the network’s creation.
According to blockchain tracker Arkham Intelligence, his current holdings amount to approximately 240,000 ETH. This is a reduction of around 460,000 ETH from his initial stash.
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