ChainCatcher news, based on BitVM2's on-chain ZKP verification infrastructure and the Babylon ecosystem project Fiamma has been invited to join the BitVM Alliance organized by Robin Linus, the founder and core developer of BitVM.The alliance was internally established a month ago, with members including Fiamma, Zerosync, Element Labs, Citrea, and Strata (incubated by Alpen Labs), a total of five teams, all of which are core contributors to the BitVM code. The primary goal of the alliance is to develop the first BitVM bridge by the end of the year.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the Bitcoin ZK Rollup protocol Citrea has deployed its BitVM-based bridge Clementine to the Bitcoin testnet.The Citrea team describes Clementine as a "trust-minimized bidirectional peg program," essentially a way to lock Bitcoin on the main chain and then mint an equivalent Bitcoin token for use on Citrea; to reverse this process, the token must be burned, after which Bitcoin can be withdrawn on the Bitcoin blockchain.Clementine leverages BitVM, a computational paradigm introduced by Bitcoin developer Robin Linus last year, designed ultimately to enable Ethereum-style smart contracts on Bitcoin while also paving the way for zero-knowledge computation.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, Bitcoin developer Robin Linus proposed a theoretical method last year aimed at making the Bitcoin blockchain more programmable. Today, he has launched a second iteration called "BitVM2," which reportedly has significant improvements that bring this concept closer to real-world deployment. The project will rely on advanced cryptography and innovative design to establish a secure "bridge" that transfers Bitcoin from the main network to a secondary network known as "rollup."According to a white paper released this week by Linus and five co-authors, the basic setup involves using cryptography to compress programs into subprograms, which are then executed in Bitcoin transactions. Subsequently, these programs are "verified" in three on-chain transactions, essentially ensuring that no one is attempting to cheat or steal. According to one of the co-authors, Alexei Zamyatin, previous versions required up to 70 transactions for verification. It is reported that Alexei Zamyatin is working separately on the Bitcoin L2 network Build on Bitcoin (BOB).A key improvement in the new version is that anyone can challenge suspicious transactions, a feature known as "permissionless challenges." The original BitVM was released last October but was never truly deployed in practice, with only a fixed group of operators able to initiate challenges."This design brings us these significant improvements," Zamyatin said in a video interview, "We now have a complete and comprehensive description of the BitVM paradigm."

ChainCatcher news, BOB co-founder Alexei Zamyatin posted on social media that Bitcoin scalability developers have released a new white paper on the second version of the Bitcoin Virtual Machine, BitVM2, and the updated BitVM Bridge. The white paper details the latest achievements in improving transaction efficiency within the Bitcoin network by enhancing transaction processing capabilities and, in some cases, updating cryptographic methods.The white paper states that the main goal of BitVM2 is to increase Bitcoin's transaction capacity without modifying the core Bitcoin code or principles of decentralization. Unlike V1, BitVM2 introduces a permissionless system that allows any user to challenge suspicious transactions.Additionally, the white paper mentions improvements to the BitVM Bridge, focusing on reducing capital requirements and shortening asset lock-up periods, which support cross-chain transactions between Bitcoin and Rollup.Previously, Robin Linus, the project lead of ZeroSync and creator of BitVM (who is also involved in the development of V2), first introduced BitVM last October.

ChainCatcher news, OKX Ventures announced the completion of a strategic investment in Bitlayer. Bitlayer will establish the first Bitcoin security-equivalent and Turing-complete Bitcoin Layer 2 based on the BitVM paradigm, aiming to become the computing layer for Bitcoin. At the end of April, Bitlayer launched a $50 million developer incentive program called Ready Player One, attracting over 500 project teams from various sectors including infrastructure, DeFi, inscriptions, SocialFi, and cross-chain bridges.Dora Yue, founder of OKX Ventures, stated: "The native design of Bitcoin ensures a decentralized, trustless, and highly secure peer-to-peer trading system. OKX Ventures has early investments in Bitcoin's infrastructure, such as Rollup, Stacks scaling solutions, and innovations in Bitcoin DeFi. Bitlayer positions itself as the Bitcoin computing layer, characterized by its framework design that uses BitVM for off-chain computation and on-chain verification, combined with DLC (Discreet Log Contract) to achieve a trustless bi-directional cross-chain bridge. Bitlayer inherits the high security advantages of the Bitcoin network and is also compatible with multiple virtual machine environments, including EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine). The Bitlayer mainnet V1 version was launched in April, supporting bi-directional cross-chain for EVM-compatible environments and mainstream assets. We look forward to enhancing the use cases of the Bitcoin network in Q3 of this year, focusing on product security and innovations in the diversity of digital assets such as NFTs, while ensuring user privacy."

ChainCatcher message, ZeroSync project leader and BitVM developer Robin Linus published "BitStream: A Decentralized File Hosting Incentive Protocol Powered by Bitcoin Payments," proposing a decentralized file hosting incentive protocol called BitStream, which offers a sustainable alternative. For example, a user might upload a video only once, incurring a one-time fee, but if the video becomes very popular and is downloaded 100,000 times, the server's bandwidth costs could far exceed the initial upload revenue.BitStream's pay-per-download method provides a solution: it allows servers to charge for each download, ensuring that revenue scales with the media's popularity and demand, thereby creating a balanced and profitable ecosystem. There is no need to rely on trust or heavyweight cryptography. Clients and servers use an optimistic protocol to execute the coin atomic exchange of files. The server responds with a file that is claimed to be correctly encrypted. The client pays for the decryption key via the Lightning Network, and if the file cannot be decrypted correctly, the client can economically punish the cheating server, which strongly incentivizes the server to act honestly.