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The Bitlayer is that -31% of BTC hashrate in Power Bitcoin Smart Contracts


The Bitlayer’s Bitcoin Smart-Contract System is implemented by mining pools behind 31.5% of the network hashrate, a development that will help ensure its system will operate on the Bitcoin blockchain, the company said.

According to a May 27 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Bitvm’s Bitvm implementation will be supported by Major Bitcoin (Btc) Mining pools including antpool, F2Pool, and spiderpool. Antpool CEO Andy Chow said:

“Antpool has become a bridge operator for Bitlayer to support bitcoin change and protect the interests of miners.”

Bitvm (Bitcoin Virtual Machine) is a plot that gives up the complex Smart contracts To deploy to the Bitcoin blockchain without changing the base protocol. The idea was introduced by Robin Linux in 2023, and allowed for the complex calculation involved in the wise contract systems to be proven onchain and executed Offchain in a way that resembles optimistic rollups.

Related: Here’s how Bitcoin changes the web3 spine

An implementation of bitvm

Bitlayer is an implementation of BITVM, aimed at allowing Bitcoin to flow through decentralized financial systems (DEFI) and layer-2 networks. According to Chow, implementation can lead to increased activity in the Bitcoin network and generate income for miners:

“Expanding Bitcoin’s use cases will bring more network activity, forming additional transaction fees and revenue opportunities for miners. As rewards decrease over time, growing fees markets are critical for the sustainable income of miners.”

Mining pools like Chow’s Antpool play a critical role in adopting BITVM implementations because they directly define the integration and verification of new types of transactions and scripts in the consensus layer.

BITVM requires miners to include custom taproot-based transactions that are encoded by interactive verification logic. Mining pools should be agreed to include non-standard or computationally intensive scripts into blocks, otherwise the protocol will not just work.

Related: Starkware researchers suggest smart contracts for Bitcoin with ColliderVM

Pool pool support

According to the hashrate index DataAntpool controls 17.2% of Bitcoin’s hashrate on May 26, while F2Pool controls 8.2% and Spiderpool 6.1%. This results in a total support of the hashrate of 31.5%.

The distribution of bitcoin hashrate between the mining pools. Source: Hash rate index

It is sufficient to secure the integration of the transaction under one in every three blocks. This may be sufficient for testing, prototyping and early stage applications.

In this percentage of supporting the hashrate, developers can develop functional systems with the assumption that, despite some latency, BITVM transactions will be processed. So while it is difficult to look at this hashrate that allows for a full operation, it is likely to be sufficient for the early stages of BITVM development.

Bitlayer Cointelegraph’s representative said that “should have collective support of the hashrate weakened or policy changes occur within the Bitcoin core, we have a multi-layered contingency plan.” This plan includes “expanded partnerships in the mining pool,” which refers to the company’s intent to maintain more mining pools.

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