Bitget App
Trade smarter
Buy cryptoMarketsTradeFuturesCopyBotsEarn

Can fractal Bitcoin break the limitations of computing power on the Bitcoin chain?

TechFlame2024/09/04 10:02
By:TechFlame
Introduction: Bitcoin, as the core driving force of the current bull market cycle, has attracted much attention to its related concepts. With the continuous development and improvement of the Bitcoin ecosystem, scalability issues have become increasingly prominent, and the concept of fractal Bitcoin has emerged. This innovative idea was originally proposed by the Unisat team to explore the scalability possibilities of the Bitcoin network. However, fractal Bitcoin is not strictly a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution (L2), and its essence is closer to a sidechain structure.
 
Analysis of the Concept of Fractal Bitcoin
The definition and core features of fractal Bitcoin
Fractal Bitcoin is an innovative blockchain extension solution based on recursion virtualization technology that enhances Bitcoin's scalability by creating a multi-layer network structure while maintaining a secure connection to the main network.
Core features:
1) recursion virtualization:
Fractal Bitcoin uses recursion virtualization technology to create multiple levels on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each level runs as an independent instance, but is anchored to the main Bitcoin network to ensure the security and consensus mechanism of the entire network.
2) Unlimited scalability:
By constantly creating new levels, fractal Bitcoin can handle the continuously growing transaction volume and data volume without causing network congestion. This enables it to adapt to the increasing processing power and storage requirements brought about by the increasing popularity of blockchain technology.
3) Dynamic load balancing:
Fractal Bitcoin can dynamically allocate resources based on real-time demand, dispersing transactions to different levels. This feature prevents a single level from becoming a performance bottleneck, ensuring smooth operation even during peak usage periods.
4) Security and Consistency:
Fractal Bitcoin is a branch of Bitcoin, not a direct extension. It adopts the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and applies it to all levels. This ensures the security and consistency of the entire network, enjoying the same level of trust and reliability as Bitcoin.
Faster block confirmation.
Compared to the usual 10-minute block confirmation time of Bitcoin, Fractal Bitcoin shortens the confirmation time to 30 seconds or less. This greatly enhances the User Experience and supports high-frequency applications and transactions.
Efficient asset bridging.
Fractal Bitcoin introduces powerful asset bridging capabilities, allowing users to securely transfer various digital assets between different network layers without encapsulating tokens, thus maintaining the integrity and availability of assets.
Overall, fractal Bitcoin maintains the basic security and reliability of the Bitcoin network while increasing scalability.
 
The background of fractal Bitcoin
The creation background of Fractal Bitcoin originated in 2023. The emergence of Ordinals and related applications attracted widespread attention, turning developers' attention to the widespread application potential of Bitcoin. However, for security reasons, Bitcoin implemented restrictions on opcodes and Block Storage space in its iterations. To address the inherent limitations of the Bitcoin blockchain, especially in terms of on-chain computing power and block space, the concept of Fractal Bitcoin was proposed.
In mathematics, fractal patterns repeat at every scale, and this principle is reflected in the architecture of fractal Bitcoin. Each layer can be seen as a smaller replica of the entire network, capable of infinite expansion to accommodate more users and transactions. This not only ensures that the network remains efficient and fast, but also provides a powerful framework for future growth and innovation. Some solutions for Bitcoin L2 are more like building a sidechain, requiring cross-chain operations, so developers seek to enhance its functionality without compromising core principles as the optimal solution.
Of course, the introduction of technologies such as SegWit and TapRoot has made it possible for this idea to be implemented, thereby improving the programmability and efficiency of Bitcoin. It has also laid the foundation for exploring more complex solutions to improve the scalability and practicality of Bitcoin.
 
Technology Implementation and Other Scaling Solutions of Fractal Bitcoin
Create multiple independent levels on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each level operates as an independent instance, but is still anchored to the main Bitcoin network. This layered architecture allows fractal Bitcoin to distribute transaction loads, and each layer can handle a large number of transactions simultaneously. To manage these levels, fractal Bitcoin implements a dynamic load balancing system. This system can flexibly allocate resources and allocate transactions based on fluctuations in transaction demand, preventing any single level from becoming a bottleneck. To achieve cross-level asset transfer, fractal Bitcoin adopts a rotating multi-party computation (MPC) signature system. This system allows efficient and secure asset transfer without users packaging their tokens, maintaining the integrity and availability of assets within the ecosystem.
Image source: DaFi Weaver
 
In practical applications, fractal Bitcoin creates dedicated instances for specific purposes. For example, it creates dedicated instances for ordinals, ensuring 100% compatibility and optimizing the handling of these assets. This dedicated instance adopts a mechanism to lock and map specific satoshis on the main chain to instances, allowing ordinals to flow seamlessly within instances while ensuring that they retain their original inscriptions when returning to the main chain.
Overall, by separating these transactions from the main network, fractal Bitcoin reduces potential friction while maintaining the purity of Bitcoin's main use cases.
 
Sidechain Technology: Expanding the Possibilities of Bitcoin
Sidechain technology achieves this goal by creating an independent blockchain that can interoperate with the Bitcoin main network. This mechanism allows users to deposit their bitcoins into contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain, and then create an equal amount of bitcoins for use on the sidechain. This bidirectional anchoring not only enhances the functionality of Bitcoin, allowing for experimentation with new features and applications without changing the main network, but also solves scalability issues by transferring transactions away from the main blockchain. Sidechains can support various use cases, such as smart contracts and decentralized applications, thereby expanding the practicality of Bitcoin and promoting innovation within its ecosystem.
 
Lightning Network: Layer 2 Solution
Lightning Network, as a key second-layer solution, allows multiple off-chain transactions to occur instantly by creating a two-way payment channel between users, significantly reducing congestion issues typically associated with the Bitcoin main blockchain. This innovative approach not only reduces transaction fees - making microtransactions economically feasible - but also improves the overall User Experience by eliminating long confirmation times for on-chain transactions.
 
The routing system of the Lightning Network can even facilitate payments between users who do not have a direct payment channel, similar to the routing method of internet data packets, thereby improving the efficiency of the payment process. Therefore, the Lightning Network positions itself as a transformative solution that solves the scalability challenges of Bitcoin, making it a practical choice for daily transactions and promoting the wider adoption of cryptocurrency in daily business. The implementation of the Lightning Network has brought many benefits to the Bitcoin ecosystem. It not only enhances the functionality of Bitcoin as a payment method, but also opens up new application possibilities, such as micropayments.
 
RGB Protocol: Bringing Smart Contract Functionality to Bitcoin
The RGB protocol introduces a ground-breaking approach to the Bitcoin ecosystem by integrating smart contract functionality into Bitcoin. By leveraging off-chain data storage and client verification, RGB allows the execution of smart contracts without placing too much data burden on the main blockchain, thus maintaining its efficiency. The protocol uses cryptographic promises to ensure the authenticity of data while enabling dynamic interaction through state transitions that track and verify the state of the contract.
This approach brings several key advantages to Bitcoin. First, it expands the functional scope of Bitcoin, making it more than just a digital currency. It also becomes a platform that supports complex financial operations. Second, thanks to off-chain processing and client verification, the RGB protocol avoids undue burden on the Bitcoin main chain, maintaining the efficiency and scalability of the network.
In addition, the RGB protocol is designed with privacy in mind, allowing users to keep transaction and contract details private when needed. This feature allows Bitcoin to support a wider range of business and financial applications while still maintaining its core security and decentralization features.
 
III. Main fractal bitcoin project ecosystems
1) Fractal Bitcoin is the first example of applying virtualization methods to Bitcoin, gradually expanding the Bitcoin blockchain into a scalable computing system without breaking the consistency with the Bitcoin main chain. At present, there is only one ecosystem platform publishing on the native Bitcoin protocol, and this project is currently highly popular. According to official social media, it is ready to go online in September.
2) UniWorlds, primarily a gaming infrastructure platform built on the Bitcoin ecosystem, leveraging fractal Bitcoin technology. We provide a comprehensive set of tools to develop and manage mobile games and Gamification environments, Twitter 38,000 fans, and few Bitcoin-related game application projects.
3) Motoswap, Defi, a decentralized exchange built on the Bitcoin 1 layer, will be deployed on Fractal.
4) Satspumpfun, the Pumpfun of the Bitcoin series, allows users to create tokens and automatically deploy them to Motoswap, similar to how Pumpfun is played.
Image credit: Unisat
 
The latent risk of fractal bitcoin
At present, the fractal bitcoin project is going through a highly hyped phase, similar to the situation in the early days of other cryptocurrency projects (such as Runes) before they went live. In this craze, a large number of project parties quickly emerged to try to capture the market heat. However, there are some risks.
The quality of projects varies widely. Although there are some teams with real strength involved, more projects are likely to be established in a hurry to catch up.
2) Insufficient technical understanding: Many teams may not have a deep enough understanding of the underlying mechanics of Fractal, which may result in a lack of practical delivery capabilities.
3) Uncertain development prospects: Really important developments are likely to occur only after the mainnet goes live, and the current popularity may not be sustainable. A concrete example of this can be seen in the failure of Fractal-420, an asset management project in the Fractal Bitcoin ecosystem, which failed due to unclear external factors.
4) Centralization risk: Fractal Bitcoin appears to rely on centralized servers for some of its key functions. This architecture runs counter to the decentralized core idea of blockchain technology and could introduce a single point of failure risk and trust issues.
In addition, there are also disputes over fractal bitcoins on the network. Fractal bitcoins can solve the disputes and compatibility issues brought about by ordinal transactions by creating specialized ordinal instances, but they deviate from traditional bitcoin usage and consider ordinals to be an abuse of the network because they often involve transactions that are different from standard bitcoin operations.
0

Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

PoolX: Stake to earn
CEC, QTLX, GDV and other popular new coins are in hot progress!
Stake now!