OP_NET mentioned it’s launching a “SlowFi” decentralized finance (DeFi) stack on Bitcoin that makes use of customary Bitcoin transactions and native BTC charges reasonably than bridges, wrapped property or a separate gasoline token.
Based on a Thursday launch shared with Cointelegraph, the venture is a part of a broader push to deliver buying and selling and yield-style exercise instantly onto Bitcoin’s base layer as an alternative of routing it by way of sidechains, bridges or adjoining networks. OP_NET is betting some customers will settle for slower and costlier transactions in change for staying totally on Bitcoin.
Based on OP_NET co-founder Frederic Fosco, who goes by Danny Plainview, functions run by way of customary Bitcoin (BTC) transactions utilizing Taproot-based spends, whereas the platform’s NativeSwap mannequin is designed to help token swaps with out wrapped BTC or a separate gasoline asset. Plainview advised Cointelegraph that each transaction on OP_NET is “only a Bitcoin transaction with BTC as the one gasoline asset.”
The launch lands in the midst of a rising battle inside Bitcoin over whether or not DeFi-style and data-heavy makes use of of block area strengthen the community’s payment market or quantity to spam that crowds out financial transactions.
Plainview mentioned a swap would usually price about $1 to $2 underneath regular payment situations and roughly $10 to $20 when blocks are congested, as a result of customers pay solely customary Bitcoin community charges reasonably than a separate gasoline token.
OP_NET describes the mannequin as “SlowFi,” arguing that Bitcoin’s roughly 10-minute block occasions and congestion-driven exit friction could make liquidity stickier and produce longer-lived DeFi cycles than sooner chains.
Associated: Fireblocks to combine Stacks for institutional-grade Bitcoin DeFi
Critics say OP_NET brings Ethereum-style DeFi bloat
Plainview framed layer-1 DeFi as a technique to help miner income as block subsidies decline, arguing that “miners are bleeding” because of Bitcoin’s halving schedule. “The one factor that retains miners solvent is a payment market,” he mentioned, insisting that OP_NET doesn’t modify the Bitcoin consensus.
Associated: Animoca, RootstockLabs accomplice to deliver Bitcoin DeFi to Japanese establishments
That view has drawn criticism from Bitcoin customers who argue that pushing DeFi-style exercise onto layer 1 dilutes Bitcoin’s financial focus or clogs block area with nonessential transactions. In current posts on X, some critics described OP_NET as an try to deliver Ethereum-style crypto infrastructure onto Bitcoin.
Some maximalists argued that any try to increase Bitcoin’s use circumstances past cash made its proponents “sh*tcoiners” larping as Bitcoiners.
Plainview pushed again, saying that any fee-paying Taproot transaction needs to be handled as a reliable use of block area.
He warned that drawing ethical traces round legitimate transactions handed de facto management of Bitcoin to whoever defines these classes. He mentioned:
“The entire level is that no one controls it.”
OP_NET retains DeFi on Bitcoin base layer
OP_NET enters a area already populated by earlier makes an attempt to deliver programmability to Bitcoin, together with by way of RSK and Stacks.
RSK operates as a separate Ethereum Digital Machine-compatible sidechain with its personal RBTC gasoline token and a federated BTC peg, which means customers transfer worth off the mainnet and belief a federation to handle the bridge.
Stacks, against this, is a Bitcoin-anchored layer-2 with its personal STX token and sBTC mechanism, executing sensible contracts on a definite chain that settles periodically to Bitcoin reasonably than inside L1 transactions.
By retaining execution and charges instantly on Bitcoin and avoiding wrapped BTC or new gasoline property, Plainview is betting that some customers will settle for slower, costlier transactions in change for staying totally on Bitcoin’s base layer.
Journal: Bitcoin could take 7 years to improve to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
