The Prosperity of the Bitcoin Ecosystem and the Inscription Craze: Established Projects Revitalize

In 2023, the mainstream narrative of the cryptocurrency world is constituted by the strong rise of Bitcoin and the thriving development of the inscription ecosystem. The price increase of Bitcoin benefits from multiple factors, including the prosperity of the on-chain ecosystem, expectations for a spot ETF, the approaching halving cycle, and the possibility of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. At the same time, the large-scale entry of institutional investors has also brought strong momentum to Bitcoin.

The inscription ecosystem, especially represented by Ordinals, has not only injected new vitality into the Bitcoin network but has also spread its influence to other public chains. Almost all leading public chains have developed their own inscription gameplay, and many established projects have also taken this opportunity to rejuvenate.

Bounce: Bitcoin Ecosystem Project Auctions and Layer 2 Plans

Bounce Finance, as a multi-chain supported Auction as a Service ( AaaS ) protocol, has recently launched several auction events for Bitcoin ecosystem projects on its platform. These projects had a low initial valuation, and subsequent auctions can use tokens from previous projects as participation tools, which has led to impressive performance. The native token AUCTION plays an important role in the auctions, and as a result, its price has increased.

Taking the GoDID project as an example, it serves as a market aggregator for decentralized identity (DID), providing support for multiple DID services. The distribution plan for the GoDID token BDID includes rewards for AUCTION buyers, stakers, and other participants in related projects.

In addition, Bounce also announced the BounceBit program, which is a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution based on Binance Bitcoin BTCB and AUCTION, expected to launch in 2024.

Uniswap: Expanding to Rootstock

The leading decentralized exchange Uniswap has recently deployed its V3 version to the Bitcoin sidechain Rootstock through Oku. This move is seen as an important expansion of Uniswap into the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Rootstock is a Bitcoin sidechain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine ( EVM ), ensuring security through merged mining and introducing a joint guarantor model for managing cross-chain asset transfers. As of mid-December, liquidity on Oku has reached $535,000.

Magic Eden: Entering the Bitcoin NFT Market

Originally focused on the Solana ecosystem, the NFT market Magic Eden announced in March this year its expansion into the Bitcoin ecosystem. This move is an important part of its multi-chain strategy, further solidifying its position in the multi-chain NFT market. Currently, NFTs from the Bitcoin ecosystem, such as bitmap and Bitcoin Frogs, are performing outstandingly in trading volume on the Magic Eden platform.

Nostr: Decentralized Social Networking Combined with Micro Payments

The decentralized social protocol Nostr underwent the NIP-57 upgrade in September this year, adding a small payment feature called "Zaps." This feature allows users to make quick, low-cost small tips or payments through the Nostr client, primarily facilitated by the Lightning Network. Currently, the number of Zap payments has exceeded 50,000.

ALEX: B20 Exchange and Bitcoin Oracle

The DeFi platform ALEX, originally operating on Stacks, recently developed a decentralized exchange B20 specifically for trading BRC20 tokens. In B20, BRC20 tokens can be traded using sUSDT, which is cross-chain from the BNB chain.

ALEX also plans to launch the first Bitcoin oracle for BRC20 tokens, working in collaboration with the BRC20 creators and several major off-chain indexers. This oracle is designed to verify each BRC20 event and update the global balance in on-chain contracts.

Public Chain Inscription Craze

The successful application of inscription technology on Bitcoin has inspired other public chains to follow suit. Currently, over 30 public chains have released or are preparing to release inscription projects, such as Ethereum's ETHS and Solana's SOLS. Some networks have even experienced temporary outages due to the minting of inscriptions.

However, the inscriptions on the smart contract chain differ from traditional smart contract transfers in some ways. Taking Ethscriptions on Ethereum as an example, it may achieve lower transaction costs by using calldata and avoiding the traditional smart contract storage and execution. However, this method may also introduce new security risks and is not as flexible functionally as traditional smart contracts.

Summary

The vigorous development of the Bitcoin ecosystem has brought new opportunities for multiple projects. Bounce has created significant economic benefits through its unique auction model; Nostr combines decentralized social networking with micropayments; ALEX has developed a BRC20 trading market and plans to launch a decentralized Bitcoin oracle; Uniswap and Magic Eden have expanded their business into the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The widespread application of inscription technology on major public chains demonstrates its influence, but its meaning and role vary across different types of blockchains. For non-smart contract chains like Bitcoin, inscription technology brings significant innovation; whereas for smart contract platforms such as Ethereum, inscriptions may reduce certain operational costs, but they could also introduce new security challenges and are less flexible functionally compared to traditional smart contracts.