BitVM Bridge Successfully Operates on Bitcoin Mainnet for the First Time

The Bitcoin ecosystem has reached an important milestone. Recently, an innovative project successfully demonstrated two complete BitVM bridge use cases on the Bitcoin Mainnet. This not only showcased the full functionality and security of the BitVM bridge but also proved the feasibility of handling non-standard transactions ( NSTs ), which has been a major challenge faced by the BitVM bridge.

Previously, the project team showcased the potential of BitVM on a dedicated testnet. To prototype on the testnet, the team had to modify the Bitcoin core client to accommodate NSTs, which are transactions that typically exceed the 400KB limit set by Bitcoin's default mempool policy. Overcoming the NST issue on the Mainnet is the final critical step in product development.

Recently, the project announced partnerships with several mining pools, dedicated to addressing the NST challenges. Excitingly, the APIs of these mining pools have successfully processed the first batch of real-time NSTs from the BitVM bridge, responding to requests from real users.

This Mainnet demonstration includes two complete BitVM bridge use cases. It is worth noting that one of the cases involves processing two different NSTs: one Assert transaction and one Disprove transaction. This demonstration powerfully showcases the capabilities of the BitVM bridge and the success of collaboration with mining pools.

Mainnet Live Demonstration

demo role

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

• Deposit Users: Initiate the process by bridging BTC to Ethereum.
• Two Brokers:
  • Broker A (malicious): attempting 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 destroyed its YBTC on 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 of honest participants.

Case 2: Invalid withdrawal request rejected

This critical scenario demonstrates the robustness of the 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 behavior 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. Due to the invalid withdrawal request, at least one data block's execution is incorrect. This step involves an Assert transaction, which is an NST successfully processed by the cooperative 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 vetoed the invalid withdrawal request. The Disprove transaction is also an NST and was successfully processed again on the Mainnet.

This case clearly demonstrates the ability of the BitVM bridge to penalize malicious actors and protect user funds, which is critically attributed to 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 feasibility of building a scalable, secure, and trustless Bitcoin infrastructure. This paves the way for a new generation of decentralized financial applications on Bitcoin.