The 4 Most Promising Bitcoin Crypto L2s

Bitcoin Layer 2’s are big news nowadays. Why?  It has 2 main reasons. First, Bitcoin ETF, where BlackRock and Fidelity are the most successful ETF launches in 30 years with more than $3b in assets each. This is just the beginning. 

Second are BRC-20 tokens, which is only a fraction of the L2 market and focuses on Ordinals already has a $2.5 BILLION market cap. In short Bitcoin Layer 2’s are growing fast. So fast, it’s hard to keep up with it all. That’s why today, we have 4 Bitcoin Layer 2’s other than our friends at Stacks. This way you can see more of what’s happening in this important corner of the market and not miss these. Ready to check out Bitcoin Layer 2’s? Let’s go!

1) Tectum

As you know from other articles, we are fans of Stacks. We think they are doing great things for Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions. But today, we are looking at Layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin beyond Stacks. Like with Ethereum, there will be a few Layer 2 winners. Not just one. So with that, we have Tectum.

Tectum and its signature product Softnotes bring a couple of important features back to Bitcoin that it had in its earliest days. With Softnotes, you can:

  • Interact easily on a p2p basis like Bitcoin was meant to be as p2p cash.
  • Transact anonymously like using physical cash.
  • Maintain the security of paper wallets from the old days but with better flexibility and ease of use.

So Softnotes help bring Bitcoin back to its first principles. The set amounts like $20, $50, $100, or 0.01 BTC help increase anonymity, too. And we know you privacy fans like that.

It’s in this way of actual transacting and in the throughput on the Tectum blockchain that Tectum acts as a layer 2 for Bitcoin. Tectum does many more transactions per second  (TPS) than Bitcoin does.

In fact, they are testing their chain now to see if it is the fastest in ALL crypto by TPS. You can see how that helps with all Bitcoin transactions. And especially smaller ones that don’t need to sit and wait in the Bitcoin Mempool for approval, finality, and consensus.

As Bitcoin grows, and it will, the need for Tectum and Softnotes will grow too.

2) Rootstock

Rootstock is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Bitcoin Layer 2 around. For the first few years of its existence, it was only Rootstock and Stacks if people wanted to look at Layer 2 transactions. Rootstock (RSK) bills itself as the world’s most secure smart contracts. And that’s because they are secured by Bitcoin’s Proof of Work and because Bitcoin is not Turing-complete like Ethereum.

Without getting too far into it, many in cryptography believe that Ethereum’s Turing-complete-ness makes it more vulnerable to hacks and other attack vectors than some other systems. Rootstock doubles down on the Bitcoin security of its contracts by maintaining a 2-way peg as a Bitcoin sidechain. So, Rootstock use a merge mining system to help Bitcoin maintain its security and its token is a Bitcoin derivative, RBTC.

Another great feature of Rootstock is its smart contracts are EVM compatible. You can even deploy EVM smart contracts directly on Rootstock to get the benefit of the Bitcoin L2 market and added security. The 2 most popular dApps on Rootstock right now are:

  • Sovryn for DeFi.
  • Money on Chain or MoC for its stablecoins.

Sovryn lets you save, borrow, and lend Bitcoin. And so far, it has almost 2500 BTC in TVL on the protocol. There are some attractive rates here and the $SOV governance token you can get as well as the $RBTC token.

With Money on Chain, you get Bitcoin-collateralized stablecoins like its DOC or Dollar on Chain. The protocol has $78 million in TVL so far with some nice rates you can earn on your Bitcoin. Do you use any Bitcoin Layer 2’s? What services on the Bitcoin Network do you use? Let us know in the comments below.

3) B Squared

Next, we have a new one. BSquared. Ordinals lovers are going to love this one. First, it’s BRC-20 compatible. That’s for you. Ordinals fans. But it has many of the other usual specs and utilities that an Ethereum Layer 2 has like:

  • EVM compatible.
  • Use the Layer 1, in this case Bitcoin, for security.
  • Zero-knowledge proofs and rollups. Other zk rollups can use BSquared as its Bitcoin data layer. So this one fits into the Celestia/Data Availability Layer narrative that’s going so strong right now too.

And then it has some features that ETH Layer 2’s don’t have or are working towards. Aside from the Bitcoin security which it would not have. For example, thanks to account abstraction, you can use most EVM wallets and ETH addresses to access B2 . So access here is MUCH easier than some other Layer 2’s.

It’s in testnet now. As you can see from these stats, the testnet is going great with more than 756,000 transactions so far. They have an active airdrop program for it and related projects too. So check them out.

4) BEVM

Last, for today, we have BEVM. Like with Ordinals, BEVM exists thanks to the Bitcoin Taproot update. Taproot came online in 2017 as part of the SegWit or Segregated Witness update for Bitcoin.

It allows things like batching transactions together, which allows BEVM  to exist. It also allows you to select which satoshi you want to send to someone. And THAT allows Ordinals or other inscriptions to exist. This way, you can keep the sat with the Ordinal on it and send another one for a payment.

Before Taproot, you couldn’t do either of these things and the Bitcoin network was slower as a result. BEVM is EVM compatible and the Validator testnet is currently running. Like BSquared, BEVM uses account abstraction so that you can access the network with your existing wallets.

Like Rootstock, there’s a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin here too. The Satoshi Protocol. While it’s not as far along as Stacks or Rootstock, it along with B2 are moving quickly to align with Ordinals, NFTs, and other  interoperability projects like bridges, DEXes, launchpads, and DeFi.

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Disclaimer
The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment, and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to the accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers and their risk tolerance may be different than yours. We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments so please do your due diligence. Copyright Altcoin Buzz Pte Ltd.

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