Bitcoin is still the most important pillar of the entire crypto space to date. However, Bitcoin was a chain that didn’t offer that much. It had slow and expensive transactions. Other chains offered smart contracts, and faster and/or cheaper transactions.
But a lot has changed. Bitcoin now also offers L2s, DeFi, NFTs, DEXes, games, and more. So, let’s take a look at the best Dapps that found their home on Bitcoin.
Source: X
1) DeFi on Bitcoin
For a long time, you could use DeFi on other chains with wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC). However, in November 2021, we saw the Taproot upgrade put into practice. This upgrade supported Dapps. Here are some platforms that took full advantage of this upgrade. For instance,
- Stacks
Stacks is also an infrastructure platform, that offers various DeFi options. It’s not a layer 2 but an independent chain with smart contracts. Stacks also supports NFTs and micropayments through the Lightning Network. For example, Alex is part of its ecosystem. It offers trading, lending, and borrowing.
- Mintlayer
Mintlayer is a Layer 2. Besides offering DeFi options, it is also an infrastructure app. It also runs on the fast Lightning Network. Mintlayer offers various DeFi growth options. It currently has an incentivized testnet until 31st January 2024. Keep an eye for its mainnet. Upon launching the mainnet, it will also launch the ML token. With Mintlayer now running on Bitcoin, there’s no more need for wrapped tokens or bridges.
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— Mintlayer (@mintlayer) October 4, 2023
2) NFTs and Marketplaces on Bitcoin
Bitcoin Ordinals, the BTC NFTs, became an overnight sensation. Currently, things have cooled down a bit for the Ordinals. Ordinals marketplaces popped up everywhere. The best ones are those that allow for creating, minting, and trading of Ordinals. Good ones are, for example,
- Gamma
This marketplace, Gamma, offers all kinds of NFTs. From art to music, BTC domain names, and more. It’s built on Stacks and allows for the creation and minting of Ordinals. It supports, both Stacks and Ethereum wallets. However, their initial commission on the first sale of your Ordinal is 10%. All later sales are at 2%.
Some big-name centralized exchanges also offer BTC NFTs marketplaces. For example, Binance or OKX. Another well-known NFT marketplace that offers Ordinals is Magic Eden.
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3) Bitcoin Wallets
Each chain needs its own wallet. It’s not any different with Bitcoin. With the arrival of the Ordinals, we also saw a surge in new BTC wallets. Ordinals are Satoshi’s with inscriptions. An ‘old style’ BTC wallet can’t distinguish between a standard and an inscribed Satoshi. This can be crucial, since inscribed Satoshi, or Ordinals, can be worth a lot more. So, this wave of new BTC wallets can make this distinction. For example, we have:
- UniSat
Unisat is an Ordinals and BRC- 20 wallet plus a marketplace, all in one. A plus is that you don’t need to run a full node for this wallet. It also spots unconfirmed NFTs. These are BTC transactions that are not confirmed within 24 hours.
- XDEFI Wallet
The XDEFI Wallet is one of the most versatile crypto wallets. It currently connects to 34 different blockchains. Besides EVM and Cosmos, it also operates on Bitcoin.
- Leather Wallet
Leather Wallet dates back to February this year. You may know it by its original name, Hiro Wallet. It’s one of the OG Ordinals wallets. It can create Ordinal inscriptions and store them. You can also connect it to various Ordinals marketplaces. For example, to Gamma.
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4) Bitcoin Infrastructure
Each blockchain ecosystem needs infrastructure projects. They let blockchains function well. For example, we have,
- BitPay
BitPay is a Bitcoin payment service. It’s already been around since 2011. It aims its services at merchants.
- The Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is a layer 2 built on top of the Bitcoin chain. It offers faster and cheaper transactions compared to the Bitcoin network. It started back in 2019.
- Taproot Assets
The Taproot Assets Protocol works mostly off-chain. This prevents blockage or congestion of the main network. For example, as we saw back in May with the Ordinals craze. It’s also interoperable with the Lightning Network.
Tokens on Bitcoin: Checking Out BRC-20, Runes, and Taproot Assets. 🚀
Lately, more and more people are talking about tokens on the Bitcoin system. This is very interesting for regular folks, tech people, and those who like to invest in digital currencies. One type, called BRC-20… pic.twitter.com/CxKVDYVdJP
— Kraverek (@kraverek) September 27, 2023
Conclusion
Bitcoin has come a long way since it launched back in January 2009. It started as a slow and expensive payment system. However, nowadays, it has layer 2s, specific wallets, NFTs, DeFi, smart contracts, and more. We selected and highlighted some top Bitcoin projects.
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 from 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.
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