Onboarding Guide: A Quick Overview of CAT Protocol
Can CAT Protocol be used? A must-read before getting in the car, a quick guide.Author: shaofaye123, Foresight News
The gas is surging, with sats/vb reaching as high as 600, and the off-exchange price of FB is rising. Is the CAT Protocol a replication of the inscription craze, a new opportunity for fractal Bitcoin, or a protocol that is jumping the gun, destined to fail? The current market enthusiasm has been rapidly ignited, and FOMO sentiment is spreading quickly. Don't rush to get on board just yet; this article will give you a three-minute overview of the CAT Protocol.
What is the currently popular CAT Protocol
According to the official introduction from the ProtocolCAT project team, the CAT Protocol is a new type of Bitcoin token protocol based on UTXO, called Covenant Attested Token (CAT). This protocol is verified by miners and uses smart contracts to manage token minting and transfer. It has the following features:
- No Indexer Required: The rule set for the tokens is guaranteed by Bitcoin consensus. Its data and logic reside on-chain and do not rely on any off-chain third parties (such as indexers) to operate. It inherits the proof-of-work security of native Bitcoin.
- Modular: CAT tokens can be used in other smart contracts to build more complex decentralized applications (e.g., AMM, lending, staking, etc.). It provides powerful and versatile new building blocks for expanding the application scope of Bitcoin.
- Programmable Minting: The rules for token minting are executed by smart contracts. Excessive minting transactions will be directly rejected by the network.
- Cross-Chain Interoperability: The CAT protocol allows for trustless asset bridging between different blockchains, enabling applications to run across multiple blockchains.
- SPV Compatible: CAT tokens support Simplified Payment Verification (SPV). Light clients can independently verify the authenticity of tokens without trusting a central server.
The CAT protocol supports both fungible tokens (known as the CAT20 standard) and non-fungible tokens (known as the CAT721 standard). Currently, CAT721 has not yet been launched.
Emergence of Various CAT Protocols
However, there is not just one CAT Protocol in the current market; based on the information gathered so far, there are already three related protocols. Each has a considerable following, and the high popularity of ProtocolCAT may be due to its early launch, but it is hard to judge how long this popularity will last. This article summarizes the existing information for a brief introduction, and any corrections or discussions are welcome. (The subheadings below are the project Twitter names)
ProtocolCAT
This protocol was launched around 3 AM on September 11, with a total of 21 million CATs available, currently supporting CLI for minting. It is the only CAT Protocol that can be minted at present. Traces of domestic development were found in the code, and the project team remains anonymous, with specific member information not yet tracked.
bc1plainview
bc1plainview claims to be the creator of the CAT20 protocol, which was released in August along with the OP_CAT feature of the BRC20 similar protocol. The project team comes from the opnet team, and the protocol will only be activated at block 21000, expected to go live in about two days. He also pointed out that the current ProtocolCAT's claim of not needing an indexer is a huge scam, as they still need to run an indexer to view token balances.
rot13maxi
The proposal for CATNIP comes from Taproot Wizards co-founder Udi Wertheimer, which is also a secondary token protocol based on OPCAT. CATNIP allows the market to execute partial fill orders and conduct bidding, where users do not need to split UTXOs in advance but can simply purchase the required number of tokens. Additionally, this protocol will allow for on-chain L1 AMM and liquidity pools. Currently, there are no CATNIP tokens, and CATNIP will only be available after OPCAT goes live on the Bitcoin mainnet.
All of these are still in the early stages, so please exercise caution before participating.
Participation Guide
Cost Rates
Currently, many bloggers have summarized code tutorials, but there is little mention of costs. Costs can be checked on Mempool and OKX. At around 300 sats/vb in the morning, it costs about 0.005 FB per transaction; currently, at a rate of 870 sats/vb, it costs about 0.013 FB, and the off-exchange price of FB has also reached 20 U, whereas previously FB could be obtained for about 6.6 U.
Minting Tutorial
Self-minting requires a certain level of computer knowledge. Below are the basic configurations and steps.
Configure the environment and install three dependencies: git, Node.js, and Docker. Download the CAT Protocol code.
Run the Docker container. You need to run a Fractal full node on the server and run a local indexer.
Install and build the CLI.
Create a wallet and deploy the minting.
For specific code, please refer to: https://mirror.xyz/3p-labs.eth/0IWdR6toFMACCRZTwTAF3XFAv2TiEAPEAHqzVF707g8
