Bitcoin’s lack of native programmability, coupled with advancements in zero knowledge cryptography, has led to rollups being explored as a substitute for an execution layer. Citrea’s approach involves using Bitcoin as a data availability & settlement layer for their zero knowledge rollup. These rollups not only lower transaction costs, but they also enable smart contracts to use Bitcoin’s L1 security and further incentivise miners to secure the chain despite halving rewards. In order to inherit Bitcoin’s security, zk proofs are inscribed in Bitcoin blocks.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Orkun’s background
• Inscriptions, BitVM and zk rollups on Bitcoin
• Optimistic bridging
• Sequencer
• Programmability solutions on Bitcoin
• BitVM development
• Citrea ecosystem development
• cBTC vs. custodial wrapped BTC
• There is no second best!
• PoW, halving block rewards and how rollups incentivise miners
• Citrea’s efficiency & fee reduction
• Bitcoin as an inflation hedge

Episode links:

• Orkun Mahir Kilic on Twitter
• Citrea on Twitter
• BitVM

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io
• Chorus1: Chorus1 is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Felix Lutsch.