Bitcoin & Beyond is an educational series by the team at Cumulative Focus on a new and emerging class of builders in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Through interactive spaces, panels and presentations, the goal is to provide deep technical insights for innovative expansion projects.
In our latest feature for Bitcoin & Beyond, we explore it Bob, a new hybrid layer solution that aims to marry the strong security of Bitcoin with the agility of Ethereum. We caught up with Dom, co-founder of BOB, to understand BOB's phased approach to development and their new embedded mining protocol. optimin.
Reignite Bitcoin innovation with Layer 2 solutions
From the beginning, Dom was clear that BOB's primary motivation was to “make it a lot easier for people to build on Bitcoin.” He highlighted the huge opportunity for Bitcoin to become as easily programmable as Ethereum while maintaining the strong security it is known for.
Like many others, he appreciated this wave of innovation currently revitalizing the Bitcoin ecosystem. “There are a lot of new projects now sharing the same vision. We think it's really worth bringing all this innovation to Bitcoin.”
The BOB team highlighted three aspects they believe are essential for new Layer 2 solutions to thrive:
1. Security and economic compatibility with Bitcoin
2. The infrastructure needed for the developer ecosystem to thrive
3. Liquidity needed to launch new projects
“It is about creating a network where liquidity and users can move seamlessly between projects, enhancing the overall vitality of the platform.”
Dom also explained BOB's market positioning: “Our approach is quite unique – we are the only ones aiming to create what we call hybrid L2.”
The BOB Collection solution is designed to be secured by Bitcoin while being integrated into the Bitcoin stack through lightweight clients. At the same time, it also serves as a backlog on Ethereum to facilitate ease of use for those within the Ethereum community. “A lot of people are used to moving from Ethereum to platforms like Arbitrum, Bays or Optimism,” Dom stated. This knowledge makes BOB an attractive platform for users and developers from the Ethereum domain, allowing them to seamlessly leverage their existing knowledge and tools.
Currently built on Stack OPThe team's focus so far has been to make the user and developer experience as native as possible to Ethereum to reduce friction for new participants. Dom also explained that there are no low-trust bridges currently available to transfer Bitcoin to the exchange.
BOB Roadmap
BOB intends to roll out its protocol in a series of strategic phases designed to progressively enhance the platform's capabilities:
The first stage: booting
Launched on May 1, this initial phase is focused on creating BOB as an optimistic version of Ethereum using the OP package, without incorporating Bitcoin's security features yet.
Phase 2: Integrating proof of work security into Bitcoin
The next step involves moving BOB to include proof of work security for Bitcoin using Optimine, an embedded mining protocol designed to strengthen the security of the system.
Stage 3: Move to Bitcoin Rollup
This phase aims to transform the platform from an Ethereum-based system to a Bitcoin-based system, depending on the progress made in new technologies such as BitVM and other anti-fraud schemes.
Phase 4: Implementing zero-knowledge proofs
The final phase anticipates the incorporation of zero-knowledge proofs, pending Bitcoin's potential adoption of the technology. This would greatly enhance privacy and transaction efficiency.
Optimen development
The team's current focus is to deliver “Optimistically sequential embedded mining“, a new technology that begins the process of integrating Bitcoin's security into BOB. Dom explains, “OptiMine expands traditional embedded mining by decoupling block production from proof-of-work finalization.” He argues that this will allow the protocol to achieve fast transaction processing while ensuring the safety typically associated with Bitcoin.
How OptiMine enhances security and efficiency
- Optimistic block production: Blocks are produced optimistically every two seconds by serializers, ensuring the high throughput that developers in the Ethereum space are accustomed to. OptiMine improves transaction completion speeds, which is critical to user experience. “Compared to traditional embedded mining methods, OptiMine allows for faster final results, which enhances overall system efficiency,” adds Dom.
- Bitcoin collateralized finalization: In OptiMine, Bitcoin miners validate blocks produced by sequencers by including a reference hash of BOB blocks within Bitcoin blocks, which are then added to the Bitcoin blockchain. This verification greatly reduces the damage caused by relying on centralized sequencers.
- Resistance reorganization: By decoupling block production from proof of work, Optimine avoids the risk of a miner attacking the chain to rewrite its history.
- Compact mining efficiency: OptiMine uses existing Bitcoin mining infrastructure to secure BOB pools without additional energy costs.
With the introduction of OptiMine and the strategic rollout of its development phases, BOB's mission is to unify two ecosystems to create a versatile platform that leverages each other's strengths.
“We want to basically be a platform between Bitcoin and Ethereum. If you bring in Ethereum assets, you should have the security of Ethereum. If you bring in Bitcoin assets, you should have the security of Bitcoin and you should be able to use both on Bob.”
Keep an eye on Bitcoin and beyond Series for more thoughts and updates on Bob And other innovative projects that shape the future of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
This is a guest post by The Rollup. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.