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Super Bitcoin Q&A

1.What is Super Bitcoin?

Super Bitcoin is a Value Internet with BTC as the core and sharing the security of Bitcoin consensus.

Super Bitcoin is built based on the BTC main net and Lightning Network, forming a customized full-chain interconnection network to achieve the effective expansion of BTC.

2. Why does BEVM combine with Lightning Network to launch Super Bitcoin?

The BEVM team believes that it is important to develop blockchain technology expansion technologies, such as EOS's million TPS, Sui's high-performance Move concurrency, and Starknet's ZK expansion and other innovative blockchain technologies. These are all meaningful, but their significance is far less important than "how to solve the fundamental problem of blockchain".

In the view of the BEVM team, the fundamental problem of the blockchain platform is "how to achieve true decentralized security." To achieve decentralized security, there is only one answer: to be the number one cryptocurrency in market capitalization.

Starting from this idea, the BEVM team believes that there are two directions to solve decentralized security:

1) Build a public chain that exceeds the market value of BTC. 2) Join the BTC main net.

For the first direction, the largest market value means the safest, which becomes the true "Bitcoin platform". Many projects such as BCH have been working towards this path before. The BEVM team pays tribute to this courage and the spirit of thinking and doing things in this direction.

Super Bitcoin’s theoretical solution to shared BTC consensus security is based on the second idea:

First achieve decentralization by sharing BTC consensus security, and then attract current and future excellent blockchain technology teams and projects to join, build and expand decentralized security Web3 based on Super Bitcoin, and also benefit industry participants. A token that is as decentralized and secure as BTC is grown on Super Bitcoin.

This approach allows blockchain technology to truly be used around BTC, and allows BTC's consensus to securely protect the entire blockchain industry.

The reason why we chose BTC instead of ETH as the main direction of attack is based on two considerations:

The Bitcoin network needs to be expanded more than the ETH network.

The Bitcoin network has a large market capitalization and is widely accepted in the global financial market. There is a market demand for further expansion.

Currently, since the Bitcoin network can only transfer funds, smart contract platforms are needed to expand the ecosystem and realize Bitcoin's functions beyond being a value store.

The Bitcoin network is easier to scale than the ETH network.

The Bitcoin network's UTXO model is more prone to concurrency than the account model. Bitcoin's minimalist microkernel model makes it easier to deterministically allow external extension systems to be added.

On the implementation path in the second direction, BEVM chose the Lightning Network as the communication layer. This is because BTC needs a breakthrough to realize the decentralized currency envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto, and the Lightning Network is the best way for Super Bitcoin to realize BTC’s decentralized currency. Because the Lightning Network is the only solution for the communication layer, and only the Lightning Network can realize the safe expansion of the shared BTC consensus and solve the effective scalability problem that has plagued ETH for a long time.

Let’s take a look at the different underlying design ideas and corresponding results of the two public chains BTC and ETH.

ETH uses a ledger model, and its object is people, which is embodied in the Nounce++ model. When dealing with transaction queuing problems using human objects, the mutual exclusion overlap is much greater than 0, making it difficult to achieve parallel abstraction. This model requires all nodes to reach a consensus, and it takes longer to reach final confirmation, making the Ethereum network unable to handle large-scale concurrency in a timely manner and unable to cope with massive transactions in actual usage scenarios.

BTC, on the contrary, adopts the UTXO model. The object it faces is assets, and transactions are processed through the UTXO model with assets as the objects. Under the UTXO parallel model, the number of mutually exclusive and overlapping modules is almost 0, allowing the Lightning Network to handle unlimited concurrency and thus achieve unlimited expansion.

We can find the answers given by these two ideas in the history of the computer industry. Decades ago, there was an interesting controversy in the development of computer operating systems: the dispute between microkernels and macrokernels. Microkernel pursues the minimalism of the kernel. The kernel only does its own core things, and all other applications and expansions are left to the outside. Macro kernels, on the other hand, let the kernel handle most of the problems.

The account model and design of ETH are based on the macro core. This model is difficult to expand: on the one hand, ETH itself is already a macro core and does not require much external collaboration; on the other hand, the account is the main body of the design, transactions are initiated based on the account model, and transaction processing is still based on accounts. Programming naturally cannot be parallelized. Bitcoin's UTXO model is similar to the microkernel model. The main object of the Bitcoin network is UTXO. Each UTXO is similar to an upgraded version of banknotes. Using one banknote (UTXO) as an object will not prevent countless people from using different banknotes (UTXO) at the same time. This model is naturally concurrent and is more suitable for large-scale expansion.

To sum up, the Super Bitcoin framework is built with reference to the microkernel architecture. With Bitcoin as the core, Bitcoin's minimalism is maintained, and through Bitcoin's only external communication interface "Lightning Network Status Channel", modules outside the core can communicate and interact with Bitcoin, thereby realizing the effective expansion of Bitcoin.

3. Why build a new architecture based on BTC consensus security?

In the past eight years of BTC expansion practice, the BEVM team has gradually realized that the best solution to expand the BTC network is to expand the blockchain ecosystem under the security of shared BTC consensus. Because only by sharing BTC consensus security can we avoid BTC market value "nuclear weapon" attacks, thereby solving the core security issues at the most fundamental level.

The security of the cryptocurrency public chain platform is positively related to the market value of the cryptocurrency that maintains its own security. Under the PoW mechanism, it is related to the market value of the underlying total computing power. Under the PoS mechanism, it is related to the market value of the tokens pledged on the network. As long as 2/3 of the network's computing power or token market value is controlled, the network will be in a centralized or "paralyzed" state. At this time, only computing power or tokens equivalent to a small portion of the BTC market value can be easily controlled by any public chain platform other than the BTC network. This attack is called a “nuclear weapon” attack on the BTC market cap. In other words, any independent chain independent of the Bitcoin consensus is a kind of internal friction, because its security cannot withstand the "nuclear weapon" attack of the BTC market value.

Of course, there is another way, which is to make a consensus cryptocurrency with a larger market value than BTC and make itself the most decentralized secure currency. Obviously, the probability of this happening is close to 0.

4. What is the difference between Super Bitcoin and the L2 originally planned by BEVM?

There are two main differences:

1). Super Bitcoin solves all current L2 underlying problems, that is, establishing an effective underlying consensus security mechanism. Super Bitcoin provides L2 with maximum underlying consensus security by sharing the overall consensus security of BTC.

2). Super Bitcoin solves the problem of expansion of L2 entrepreneurial projects. Super Bitcoin provides a Fusion Layer that is compatible with protocols of different VMs, allowing entrepreneurial projects to easily customize their own Lightning Chain, thereby achieving unified integration with the Lightning Network. Entrepreneurs only need to focus on solving the most critical L2 business expansion or functional expansion issues. This will not only make it easier to get started, but also stay focused in the early stages, thereby greatly increasing the success rate of the project.

5. What is the relationship between the previous BEVM Canary, the current BEVM Mainnet and the future Super Bitcoin?

BEVM Canary and BEVM Mainnet are a BTC L2 built by the BEVM team based on Taproot Consensus after 8 years of industry accumulation. Canary Network is the pilot test network; BEVM Mainnet is the main network and will be online in April 2024.

Super Bitcoin is a further macro concept made by the BEVM team after more in-depth thinking. It is a value Internet with BTC as the core and sharing the security of Bitcoin consensus. It is also an iterative upgrade of the technology and brand of the entire BEVM system.

Super Bitcoin designed a five-layer architecture of kernel layer, communication layer, consensus layer, network layer and application layer. Accordingly, it jointly realizes shared Bitcoin consensus by integrating Bitcoin main network, Lightning network, BEVM main network, different protocols and different applications. A secure Internet of value.

In this five-layer architecture, the BEVM main network serves as the execution network in the consensus layer and serves as the system chain, similar to the function of the relay chain in the Polkadot network. At the same time, the BEVM mainnet also serves as one of the mainnets in the network layer and serves as the Lightning Chain.

6. Why can Lightning Network nodes be upgraded to “chains with smart contracts”?

First, let's take a look at the operating mechanism of Lightning Network: Lightning Network locks assets on the Bitcoin mainnet through the state channel (State Channel) model, and then issues equivalent personal notes off-chain for each user to manage themselves. For example, there are two users A and B in the market, and they each have their own tickets. In order to exchange, they have to establish their own A'nodes and B'nodes through state channels. Since A' and B' are both personal nodes, this status channel can only be used by them. If other people want to interact with A' or B', they need to open a new status channel. At this time, there may be a situation where A' or B' is not online and cannot be opened, causing transaction inconvenience. Just imagine how we would feel if when we were going to make a payment, the other party told us that we were not available now and would wait until the payment was online.

Now if we treat node A' of A as an independent chain, the smart contract on the chain manages and executes A'. In this way, not only B and A can interact, but other users such as C, D, E, etc. can interact with A in real time without opening a separate status channel. This greatly enhances the convenience of transactions and improves transaction efficiency.

BEVM is based on Taproot Consensus, which not only effectively inherits the security of the Lightning Network, but also can realize the functions of smart contracts due to its BFT PoS mechanism. Therefore, by using BEVM as the consensus layer and network layer, the original personal node can be transformed into a "chain node with smart contract".

In terms of security, the upgrade of Lightning Network personal nodes to chain nodes does not weaken the security of the Lightning Network protocol: compared to chain nodes, the transparency of personal centralized management nodes is relatively weak. Moreover, if the public chain itself becomes more decentralized through PoS or other consensus mechanisms, it will further enhance the security of the Lightning Network protocol.

7. The Super Bitcoin white paper mentions that the Fusion Layer abstracts the functions of the first three layers. How to understand "functional abstraction"?

The overall architecture of Super Bitcoin has five layers, of which the first three layers are: the first kernel layer, which is the Bitcoin network; the second communication layer, which is the Lightning Network; and the third extension layer, which is the network layer with Taproot Consensus as the core.

Fusion Layer abstracts the above three layers of functions and refers to:

• The first layer (kernel layer) of Bitcoin maintains the consensus security of the entire asset;
• Assets are transmitted to the receipt (Receipt) of the Lightning Network through the second layer (communication layer);
• After the third layer (extension layer) detects that the receipt is generated, it packages the receipt in the form of Taproot Consensus and abstracts it into the data format that the smart contract VM needs to process, and then further passes the data to the Lightning Chain in the fourth layer (fusion layer) .

The integration layer is composed of different Lightning Chains. This layer is compatible with the protocols of different VMs, including EVM, SVM, MoveVM, CairoVM, etc. After receiving the data transmitted from the consensus layer, each Lightning Chain will uniformly process the data abstraction formed by the first three layers.

8. Is the fusion layer in the Super Bitcoin white paper a sub-chain of BEVM? Why not follow the BEVM framework, but can all kinds of virtual machines (VM) run?

The convergence layer consists of Lightning Chains of different VM protocols, and BEVM runs as a chain in the Lightning Chain.

The BEVM framework itself allows developers to customize various VMs or various services to run. The lightning chain in the fusion layer is a carrier similar to Polkadot Parachain's one-click chaining. The difference from Polkadot is that Parachain shares $DOT consensus security, while Lightning Chain shares BTC consensus security.

BEVM was EVM-compatible BTC L2 in the past. This upgrade to Super Bitcoin not only makes BEVM a BTC L2 Studio, integrating different VM protocols, but also achieves a qualitative leap at the consensus level: unlike L2 that requires other PoS networks, personal or multi-signature wallet hosting, access to Super Bitcoin Assets on BTC L2 will be managed only by the Bitcoin network and share the BTC consensus security.

9. Is the approach of Lightning Chain in the fusion layer similar to the concepts of Polkadot staking and leasing?

The mechanism of Lightning Chain is different from Polkadot's staking and leasing.

Each Lightning Chain in the Super Bitcoin fusion layer is itself upgraded from the verification node of the Lightning Network. Since each individual node of the Lightning Network can establish a channel freely and without permission, the Lightning Chain can also freely access and exit without permission like individual nodes of the Lightning Network.

In order to achieve true interconnection, different lightning chains must follow a unified consensus, which is the Taproot Consensus in the consensus layer, which is composed of Schnorr Signature, MAST (Merkelized Alternative Script Trees) and BTC SPV Light Nodes.

From an economic model point of view, Polkadot uses an auction model to capture value for $DOT holders by locking up $DOT. Cosmos’ approach is to capture value by airdropping $Atom through ecological projects.

The approach of Lightning Chain will consider balancing the two approaches: on the one hand, it will not force the use of $DOT like Polkadot, and on the other hand, it will not be completely irrelevant and laissez-faire like Cosmos.

10. System Chain in the Fusion Layer In addition to BEVM, are there other system chains?

The System Chain is similar to the System Process in the operating system and is used to process kernel data and manage user processes.

As the initiator and architect of Super Bitcoin, BEVM is temporarily serving as a system chain to handle the execution of the entire Super Bitcoin system protocol at the current stage, managing and coordinating other Lightning Chains and interactions at each layer. In the future, as the number of users and transaction volume increases, more system chains may be added to manage the entire protocol.

11. Will BEVM run a single node in the Lightning Network? If so, will it be centralized?

BEVM will use Taproot Consensus to run a single node of the Lightning Network, but this "single node" is actually a chain, like Arbitrum.

The overall architecture of the BEVM chain is designed based on the decentralized Taproot Consensus idea: Schnorr Signatures can aggregate and call up to 1,000 signatures to confirm transactions, and the MAST contract can enable signatures to be executed in a smart contract manner. Bitcoin SPV Light Nodes can verify transactions through up to 1,000 light nodes. This approach is more decentralized than the individual node ledger in the current Lightning Network.

12. If the lightning chain in the integration layer can directly establish a channel with users, does it have to be linked to the system chain?

The Lightning Chain in the fusion layer does not need to be linked to the System Chain. The system chain manages the coordinated communication between lightning chains. This link establishes a status channel, which is an enhanced version of the status channel. Users only need to link to any lightning chain managed by lightning chain to realize mutual interaction between users. This is a feature that the Lightning Network already has, and BEVM amplifies this interaction.

Users linked to the same lightning chain can freely interact with single-chain contracts. User interaction on different lightning chain links requires cross-chain message interaction. At this time, it will be coordinated through the system chain, similar to the functions provided by Polkadot's Relay Chain. Furthermore, the system chain can provide the ordering of cross-chain message interaction transactions, and can solve the problem of user priority through empowerment or charging.

13. After BEVM launches this technological innovation, how will its own value feed back to the BEVM ecosystem and token?

After BEVM launches this technological innovation, its economic model will be biased towards mechanisms that provide better services. For example, other chains can arbitrarily access the Lightning Chain without enabling BEVM (such as airdrop tokens). BEVM, as a system chain, will queue up and process many transactions normally. And if a certain lightning chain needs to prioritize its messages or transactions, it can be achieved by empowering the BEVM community (such as airdropping tokens or paying). BEVM's token is focused on motivating the Super Bitcoin protocol. On the premise of sharing the security of BTC consensus, the current and future excellent blockchain expansion technologies will be integrated into the Super Bitcoin framework to infinitely amplify the value of BTC.

14. Does consensus security refer to the thousands of BTC that are pledged to the Lightning Network?

No.

Sharing BTC consensus security means being as safe as BTC. Specifically, it is maintained by the PoW consensus that maintains the entire BTC network.

15. How safe are the funds on the Lightning Chain?

Lightning Chain has a multi-chain structure. BEVM, as one of the BFT consensus chains, is responsible for execution and does not control funds.

If users have needs or do not trust a certain chain, they can withdraw their funds on that chain at any time and safely return to the Lightning Network.

16. What is the current progress of Super Bitcoin?

The white paper of Super Bitcoin has been released by the BEVM team on October 22, 2024.

The Super Bitcoin testnet is expected to be launched in November 2024, and the mainnet with economic model incentives is expected to be launched before March 2025.

17. The operation method of Super Bitcoin sounds somewhat similar to RGB’s one-time seal. RGB stores Commitment on the BTC chain or in Lightning Network nodes. I would like to ask what are the advantages of Super Bitcoin compared to RGB?

RGB has been developed since 2018, but it has not yet been implemented. For security reasons, we do not refer to unimplemented protocols. What we refer to are basically products that have been implemented in the market and are operational, and then we combine them with our own projects to innovate. Only in this way can we be more likely to ensure that BEVM can be implemented.

What is said in the question exists on the BTC chain or the Lightning Network. This is a big misunderstanding. Blockchain is not a simple storage system. Simply existing on the blockchain is essentially meaningless.

The core of blockchain is decentralized consensus. And the existence on the BTC network may have the greatest significance. Because the BTC network is very secure, data will not be lost. This is the meaning of BEVM's proposal to share the security of BTC consensus.

18. When is the transaction finality (Finalized) in Super Bitcoin finalized? Is it after the Lightning Network state transition commitment contract is signed, or when the channel is closed and BTC is settled?

Super Bitcoin has 3 situations that will result in transaction finality.

1). When closing channel BTC settlement 2). When the user takes the initiative to forcefully synchronize the Lightning Network status channel information with the Bitcoin network 3). The timing synchronizer set by Lightning Chain synchronizes timing with the Bitcoin network.

For specific details, please refer to the operating system's kernel mode and user mode operation interface epoll or poll.

19. What were the reasons for choosing to use the Substrate framework to build Super Bitcoin?

Because there are many other interoperable frameworks on the market, such as various Stacks and Comsos SDK. The earliest chain to be launched on Substrate was made by the BEVM team, and we are very familiar with Substrate. In 2018, the BEVM team and Gavin Wood's team at Paritytech were writing Polkadot. When the Substrate framework was split, the earliest chain to run through the framework was BEVM's pioneer network ChainX. We are familiar with Substrate, which is the choice of emotional development issues.

Of course, there is also a love for Substrate technology. Because Substrate is written in Rust. Rust language is a better language in the coding circle. Secondly, Gavin Wood is very professional in optimizing the chain technology. After all, he wrote the original code of ETH, so Substrate's engineering implementation is very elegant.

20. Why can BEVM do such a grand thing as Super Bitcoin?

The BEVM team has been developing Bitcoin for 8 years.

From the perspective of Super Bitcoin’s 5-layer architecture,

1). 2016-2017: The BEVM team is mainly studying the first layer (kernel layer).

a). In 2016, the BEVM team was committed to writing relevant blockchain expansion solutions for national banking units, in which amount privacy refers to the zk module code extension of Bitcoin’s core code secp256k1 https://github.com/gguoss/secp256k1-zkp/blob/master/include/sdc_common.h

b). In 2017, the team developed Bytom, a DeFi expansion system based on a BTC-like UTXO ledger model. https://github.com/BytomDAO/bytom.

3). 2017-2018: The team is mainly studying the second layer (communication layer) of Super Bitcoin and making extensions related to the Lightning Network state channel.

During this period, we also invested in the Raiden Network on Ethereum, which copied the Lightning Network protocol. The ideas behind Plasm and OpRollup all originated from this.

2018-2020: The team is mainly developing the fourth layer (Fusion layer) of Super Bitcoin, also called the multi-chain layer.

The main reference is Polkadot’s multi-chain framework for shared consensus security. For example, ChainX (https://github.com/chainx-org/ChainX), the first project that separated the Substrate framework from the Polkadot code base and then launched it on the main network, was developed by the BEVM team. This is one year earlier than any team in the Polkadot ecosystem, including the DOT team: one year after the launch of ChainX, the first chain of Substrate (the name of DOT’s founding partner), the second chain based on Substrate was launched, namely Kusama is online.

At this time, Super Bitcoin’s layer 4 framework technology was laid.

4). 2020-2023: The BEVM team simultaneously developed the third and fifth layers of the Super Bitcoin framework.

a). The third layer (extension layer): the Taproot Consensus layer. This layer is the main core work of the BEVM team, completing technologies such as Bitcoin SPV + Schnorr + MAST + BEVM stack and Lightning Network state channel integration.

b). The fifth layer (application layer): The BEVM team has developed @OmniBTC's OmniSwap and Omnilend products as well as @ComingChatApp, using full-chain thinking to build the future full-chain APP, that is, the future of Super Bitcoin's full-chain application.

5). 2024: After careful thinking and analysis, the BEVM team has thoroughly integrated the historical development experience accumulated in the previous 8 years into a protocol framework, namely Super Bitcoin, which can make all excellent blockchain technologies rely on now and in the future.

Integrated with the Super Bitcoin framework, it can decentralize and expand the entire web3 ecosystem on the premise of sharing the security of the BTC consensus. Just like the definition of Super Bitcoin: an Internet of value that shares the security of BTC consensus.

21. Bitcoin will ensure the security on the chain, that is, every transaction will be verified through the core layer Bitcoin. Will that increase the pressure on the core layer? At the same time, what is the significance of Super Bitcoin’s high concurrency?

First of all, not every transaction needs to be verified on the Bitcoin mainnet to be proven. The Bitcoin mainnet only does one thing, verify status updates. No calculation will be done on the Bitcoin mainnet, and the concurrency of its UTXO can be verified through the BTC SPV model. This is also the basis for the unlimited concurrency capabilities of the Lightning Network.

Specifically, a collection of UTXOs forms a chain or a node. UTXO subsets are executed with each other through the state channel Setup mode, and each pile can be executed separately. The status of Bitcoin UTXO's ledger model is in the hands of the user, and the calculation is also in the user's own hands. Instead of a ledger model like ETH, the state and calculations are on the chain and cannot be parallelized.

The Bitcoin network design model has inherent concurrency. The practice of this Lightning Network project is a typical use of Bitcoin's stateless UTXO concurrency capability. It is a practical practice: it proves that the Bitcoin UTXO account model can be implemented with unlimited concurrency. The core logic of Super Bitcoin is also based on the stateless calculation of Bitcoin's UTXO model to conduct unlimited concurrent transactions, thereby achieving unlimited concurrency capabilities.

The stateless calculation of Bitcoin's UTXO gives the entire Super Bitcoin system unlimited expansion capabilities, but it lacks flexibility. That is, it can only achieve the BTC mainnet function of unlimited transfer and execution concurrency by solving the off-chain double-spend problem such as the Lightning Network. capabilities without the flexibility of Turing-complete programmability. Although the Turing-complete VM under ETH's Account nonce++ world state tree model provides Turing-complete programmability, it limits concurrency because the calculation is performed on the global state tree on the chain, which completely limits the performance of the calculation, that is, the concurrent computing capability of the new public chain can reach up to 1,000 TPS, while ETH can only achieve dozens of TPS. This architecture cannot be infinitely expanded. Even if a model like Polkadot simply accumulates the limited computing power of ETH and lets the parachain execute it, it can only achieve a 100-fold breakthrough in the performance of the ETH main network, which does not make much sense.

The Super Bitcoin framework is a system composed of unlimited Turing-complete VMs with limited computational power under the shared BTC consensus security by means of “Bitcoin's unlimited parallel verification capabilities + Ethernet's Turing-complete computational capabilities” under the premise of guaranteeing asset security with Bitcoin consensus security. This is Super Bitcoin.