💙 Gate Square #Gate Blue Challenge# 💙
Show your limitless creativity with Gate Blue!
📅 Event Period
August 11 – 20, 2025
🎯 How to Participate
1. Post your original creation (image / video / hand-drawn art / digital work, etc.) on Gate Square, incorporating Gate’s brand blue or the Gate logo.
2. Include the hashtag #Gate Blue Challenge# in your post title or content.
3. Add a short blessing or message for Gate in your content (e.g., “Wishing Gate Exchange continued success — may the blue shine forever!”).
4. Submissions must be original and comply with community guidelines. Plagiarism or re
Spark leads the new protocol trend in the Bitcoin ecosystem, LRC20 tokens are in high demand.
The New Wave of Bitcoin Ecosystem Protocols: Spark Leads the Innovation Tide
In the Bitcoin ecosystem, creating new asset issuance protocols is not difficult; the key lies in whether it can attract continued participation from the community and project teams. Recently, the Bitcoin ecosystem has once again seen a surge in new protocol trends. Although most projects merely repurpose old concepts using inscription technology, lacking infrastructure, development support, and user bases, there are still some serious projects worth noting.
On May 20, a well-known Bitcoin ecosystem trading platform announced a partnership with the emerging Bitcoin L2 project Spark and plans to hold a joint event on May 26. Spark, as an innovative Bitcoin scaling solution, officially launched its mainnet test version on April 29. On May 8, the first LRC20 token FSPK was born. Despite some issues during the minting process, it still sparked enthusiastic reactions from the Bitcoin ecosystem community. Currently, the over-the-counter trading price of FSPK has reached $12-20 per piece (1 piece = 0.001 coin), which is at least six times the minting cost of about $2 per piece.
This collaboration may promote the development of the on-chain trading market for LRC20. In addition, Spark has also collaborated with several projects, and the ecosystem has begun to take shape. It is worth mentioning that Spark is backed by well-known venture capital institutions.
Spark: The Bitcoin-native L2 born for payments and settlements
Spark is a Bitcoin native L2 solution designed specifically for payments and settlements. It uses an off-chain scaling solution, unlike EVM-compatible chains or Rollups, and does not support smart contracts or have a virtual machine. Spark allows users to perform instant, low-cost, and unrestricted self-custodial transactions of Bitcoin and other tokens (including stablecoins) off-chain, while having native interoperability with the Lightning Network.
For Bitcoin scaling solutions, users are most concerned about the security of funds, specifically whether Bitcoin entering L2 can be withdrawn safely and without obstacles. The Spark network is currently managed by two operators, namely the parent company Lightspark and Flashnet. Theoretically, all transactions on Spark require at least one operator and the user to jointly authorize in order to be completed. Although this design carries certain risks, Spark still maintains the non-custodial and Bitcoin-native characteristics.
The core technology of Spark is based on the shared signature protocol of Bitcoin, operating in the form of a distributed ledger without the need for an additional consensus mechanism. Users' Bitcoin deposits are directly mapped to Spark, without any need for transfer bridges or wrapping. Even if Spark operators encounter issues, users can still unilaterally force withdrawals to the Bitcoin mainnet, ensuring the safety of their funds.
Lightspark, the parent company of Spark, was founded by David Marcus, who previously served as the president of a payment platform and the vice president of messaging products at a social media company. In May 2022, Lightspark completed over $170 million in Series A financing, backed by a strong lineup of investors.
On April 29, Spark launched the public beta version of its mainnet, with core functionalities fully operational. Developers can use Spark's SDK to build applications. Currently, users do not incur transaction fees on the Spark network, but there are certain Bitcoin on-chain fees for deposits or withdrawals of Bitcoin.
Spark Native Token Protocol LRC20
LRC20 is the native token protocol launched by Spark in the summer of 2024, compatible with the Bitcoin mainnet and the Lightning Network, but currently only supports running on the Spark network. Anyone can issue LRC20 tokens, but must broadcast a transaction on the mainnet, embedding the token information in the OP_RETURN output.
LRC20 does not support fair issuance mode; only the original issuance wallet can mint tokens after issuance. At the same time, LRC20 supports freezing and destroying operations, granting significant power to the original issuance address, but it may also lead to centralization risks.
Currently, several notable LRC20 tokens have emerged in the market:
FSPK (ending with 8b93): The first LRC20 token, with a total of 21 pieces, over-the-counter trading price of 12-20 USD each.
FSPKS: Issued to correct the total supply issue of FSPK (ending with 8b93), with a total supply of 21 million coins.
FSPK (ending in 6c82): Total supply of 21 million coins, over-the-counter trading price of 4-10 dollars per piece.
SAT: Total supply of 210 trillion coins, airdropped by anonymous developers to FSPK (ending with 8b93) minters.
SNOW: Total supply of 21 million coins, launched by the Spark ecosystem project sparksat, with an over-the-counter trading price of 19 USD per piece.
Early Projects and Tools in the Spark Ecosystem
There are already some steadfast builders in the Spark ecosystem, showcasing the characteristics of the early BRC20 ecosystem. In addition to collaborating with a certain trading platform, Spark has also established partnerships with the stablecoin issuance protocol brale and the Web3 infrastructure Privy.
The main early projects and tools include:
sparkscan: The browser for the Spark network, used to view address balances, transaction records, and other information.
SparkSat: The first fully functional web wallet tool on the Spark protocol, supporting asset management, trading, and LRC20 token issuance.
Flashnet: One of the operators of the Spark protocol, dedicated to building a permissionless, non-custodial, Bitcoin-native DEX.
With the continuous development of the Spark ecosystem, we have reason to expect the emergence of more innovative projects and tools that will advance the Bitcoin ecosystem.