$GOAT Network is thrilled to announce the release of our $GOAT BitVM2 Whitepaper.

$GOAT BitVM2 shortens the original 14-day challenge period of BitVM2 down to less than 1 day — a major breakthrough for the industry and for the long-awaited quest to scale Bitcoin in a secure and effective way.

We achieve this with a unique architecture that combines zkMIPS proof networks with a decentralized sequencer architecture and a unique, groundbreaking economic model.

The result is a new and powerful framework for zkRollups on Bitcoin, representing a breakthrough in the arms race where dozens of blockchains compete to inherit the elusive but essential standard of native Bitcoin security.

To better understand the context, think back to half a decade ago, when Optimistic Rollups such as Optimism and Arbitrum emerged. That breakthrough enabled faster and cheaper Ethereum transactions, with the underlying Optimistic Rollup structure allowing those chains to inherit native Ethereum security, with native bridges imbued with that essential feature.

tl;dr: peace of mind when it comes to putting your funds to work on chain, whether you're a seasoned whale or a first-time blockchain user.

Think of Bitcoin-scaling efforts today as being at the same stage as Ethereum-scaling efforts at the start of this decade. Dozens of blockchains have launched over the past couple of years, calling themselves Bitcoin Layer 2 networks — thus implying that they have inherited native Bitcoin security.

In fact, there are ZERO chains that can legitimately make that claim today; Bitcoin’s programmability limitations have made it extremely difficult to do so.

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BitVM2 was originally introduced as a way to enable arbitrary computation verification on Bitcoin without requiring L1 changes. However, there are some critical open problems for any chain to launch a production-ready BitVM2 bridge:

Operator Double-Spend Attack: BitVM2 currently allows an operator to submit a verifiable but fraudulent state (e.g., from a forked chain), enabling potential double-spend attacks during withdrawals.

Inefficient Challenging Process: The system imposes high computation and coordination costs due to rigid 1-to-1 stake-to-challenge mapping and lengthy challenge periods. It also lacks support for flexible peg-out amounts, reducing capital efficiency and user experience.

Lack of Pragmatic Incentive Mechanism: The protocol lacks effective incentives for participant engagement. In particular, challengers may not receive rewards, making it difficult to ensure honest and timely dispute resolution. Misaligned incentives in crowdfunding-based challenge systems may result in the wrong participant receiving the reward.

The $GOAT BitVM2 solution aims to address these challenges through three architectural innovations:

Cryptoeconomic Security Layer: Implements dual-slashing mechanisms combining Bitcoin native script verification and $GOAT consensus-layer penalties, increasing operator misconduct costs exponentially. The protocol maintains a properly sized operator set, achieving high liveness under 1-of-n honest node assumptions.

Accelerated Dispute Resolution: A multi-round challenger selection mechanism accelerates the challenge process, reducing effective finality to less than one day.

Incentive-Aligned Challenge Economy: Successful challenges earn the fraud bounty (from slashed proposer stakes). This mechanism boosts challenge participation rates and aligns challenge incentives in the event the operator misbehaves.

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$GOAT BitVM2 marks a huge step toward inheriting Native Bitcoin Security in a practical and cost-effective way, as well as the legitimate title of Bitcoin L2.

To learn more about $GOAT BitVM2, visit https://t.co/zcmIctOnUI