An Overview of the BTC Layer 2 Scaling Protocol PATH

Source: 0xdabai

The explosion of inscriptions and the development of Bitcoin Layer 2 technology have attracted close attention from the industry. Although Bitcoin is known for its security and decentralization, its ability to handle a large number of transactions is limited by its finite transaction speed. This challenge has led to a demand for Layer 2 solutions. As a part of this transformation, the PATH Protocol will play a key role in driving the entire Bitcoin ecosystem towards a more mature and diversified direction.

The PATH Protocol is entirely based on Bitcoin consensus's Layer 2 infinite scalability solution, and we will explore PATH from three dimensions.

Cross-Chain

In the decentralized world, various crypto assets in the blockchain industry are the cornerstone of the Web3 ecosystem. Therefore, asset cross-chain is a fundamental capability and one of the driving forces of PATH.

The PATH Protocol implements cross-chain through a hybrid system that employs both relay and notarization mechanisms. The states of other blockchain systems are opened to the PATHBTC protocol via relays, allowing applications on the PATHBTC protocol network to freely query the states of other blockchain systems. Meanwhile, cross-chain instructions from the PATHBTC protocol are issued to other blockchain systems in the form of notarization. Before the cross-chain components of the PATHBTC protocol network are released, the notarization mechanism must be implemented to facilitate subsequent migration. By conducting KYC on founding nodes, staking assets on committee nodes, forming a temporary committee through the VRF algorithm, and supervising malicious nodes through periodic reporting and multi-signature, a decentralized fairness mechanism is achieved for equity and security.

Scalability

Nodes in the decentralized network of the PATH Protocol maintain ledger data and the standards and rules for mutual interaction. These nodes operate independently in a network environment, exchanging information and forming a scalable, efficient, and tamper-proof decentralized infrastructure.

The PATH Protocol ultimately proposes a decentralized public ledger protocol, PATH, which can scale performance, throughput, and storage capacity while ensuring security. To achieve high throughput and low latency, the ledger decouples transactions into two parts: initiation and reception, created by different accounts. Since the creation of blocks by different accounts does not affect each other, after introducing the settlement state of the blocks, this model can achieve significant elasticity in storage and throughput. Unlike Nano's account model, PATHBTC supports a variety of assets and, through the Merkle tree of accounts, supports Key-Value data storage.

In addition to containing the business requirements for achievable smart contract applications, PATH's decentralized applications also have more flexible and higher-level definitions. Besides enabling complex decentralized applications, there are also applications such as oracles, authoritative nodes, and cross-chain. The high throughput and low latency advantages of the PATHBTC system architecture bring the experience of decentralized applications closer to that of centralized applications.

The PATH Protocol scales Turing-complete smart contracts, supports decentralization, is EVM compatible, and offers high performance and high scalability, as well as compatibility with the Lightning Network.

The First Implementation of a Scalability Subchain

PATH will soon release the first Layer 2 chain based on the PATH framework to meet the requirements for running smart contracts and high scalability. This is crucial for building a practical application platform, primarily achieved through the following technologies to enhance the underlying architecture of the chain.

It adopts the PATH-Random consensus mechanism, which combines PBFT theory and VRF algorithms to design a consensus mechanism that balances fairness and efficiency.

It employs Plasma blockchain scalability computation, where numerous blockchains are combined into a tree structure to participate in computation collectively, achieving horizontal scalability of the blockchain.

It utilizes a more powerful virtual machine that not only meets EVM compatibility but also has sufficient scalability and a foundational set of instructions to meet performance demands.

About PATH Protocol

The PATH Protocol is entirely based on Bitcoin consensus's Layer 2 infinite solution. Based on the Depin/POW consensus mechanism's UTXO model, it thoroughly resolves scalability issues while supporting the consensus security of core assets sharing the BTC network. It also supports Turing-complete smart contracts, is fully compatible with mainstream EVM systems, and supports one-click migration and deployment of mainstream DApps, aiming to become the cornerstone facility of the BTC network's Web3 ecosystem.