BitVM bridge successfully implemented on the Bitcoin Mainnet for the first time

Recently, an important breakthrough was achieved on the Bitcoin Mainnet. The real-time application of two BitVM bridges was successfully demonstrated, showcasing their comprehensive functionality and robust security. This achievement not only proves the feasibility of the BitVM bridges but also highlights significant progress in handling non-standard transactions (NSTs), which has been a major challenge faced by the BitVM bridges.

Previously, the potential of BitVM was first demonstrated on the dedicated testnet bitvmnet. To effectively prototype on the testnet, the development team had to modify the Bitcoin core client to accommodate NSTs, which are transactions that often exceed the 400KB limit allowed by Bitcoin's default mempool strategy. Solving the NST issue on the Mainnet is the final key step in product development.

Recently, partnerships established with multiple mining pools have provided a breakthrough in addressing NST challenges. The APIs of these mining pools have successfully processed the first batch of real-time NSTs from the BitVM bridge in response to genuine user requests.

This demonstration provides a detailed showcase of two complete BitVM bridge use cases executed on the Bitcoin Mainnet. Notably, one of the cases involves handling two different NSTs: Assert transactions and Disprove transactions. This demonstration powerfully illustrates the capabilities of the BitVM bridge and the success of collaboration with mining pools.

Mainnet Live Demonstration

Roles in the demonstration

To illustrate the working mechanism of the bridge, the Mainnet demonstration includes the following roles:

• Recharge users: Start the process by bridging BTC to Ethereum.
• Two Brokers:
  • Broker A (malicious): Attempts to steal funds through invalid withdrawal requests.
  • Broker B (Honest): Initiate a legitimate withdrawal process.

Preparation: Deposit and create bridge instance

1. The user deposits 0.0001 BTC into the BitVM smart contract.
2. Subsequently, the recharge user minted 0.0001 Peg-BTC on the Ethereum network (YBTC).

Case 1: Honest Broker Successfully Withdraws

This scenario demonstrates an honest Broker successfully retrieving their BTC and collateral after destroying their Peg-BTC (YBTC) on Ethereum. This utilizes the flexible withdrawal feature of the BitVM bridge.

1. Broker B has burned its YBTC on the Ethereum.
2. Broker B initiated a withdrawal request by sending a Kickoff transaction on Bitcoin.
3. After the predefined timeout, Broker B successfully retrieved its BTC and collateral through a HappyTake transaction.

This case verifies the optimistic withdrawal path for honest participants.

Case 2: Invalid withdrawal request denied

This key scenario demonstrates the robustness of the BitVM security model. A malicious Broker (Broker A) attempts to steal funds, but the fraud proof protocol involving NSTs successfully thwarted this attack.

1. Broker A initiated an invalid withdrawal request by sending a Kickoff transaction.
2. An honest observer detected fraudulent activity and sent a Challenge transaction, forcing Broker A into the "pessimistic path" of the fraud proof protocol.
3. Broker A is forced to reveal all intermediate values of the validator data block. This step involves an Assert transaction, which is an NST successfully processed by a collaborating mining pool.
4. The observer ran all the data blocks offline and identified an incorrect one, then sent a Disprove transaction to replay the erroneous data block on the chain. This ultimately invalidated the invalid withdrawal request. The Disprove transaction is also an NST and was successfully processed on the Mainnet again.

This case clearly demonstrates the ability of the BitVM bridge to penalize malicious actors and protect user funds, which is critically aided by the Mainnet's handling of NSTs such as Assert transactions and Disprove transactions.

The successful live demonstration on the Bitcoin Mainnet this time is an important milestone. It validates the strength of the relevant technology, partnerships with mining pools, and the commitment to building a truly scalable, secure, and trustless Bitcoin infrastructure. This paves the way for a new generation of decentralized financial applications on Bitcoin.