Bringing The EVM To Bitcoin With Willem Schroe

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Willem from Botanix Labs joins us to discuss their pioneering "spider chain" approach for Bitcoin's second layer. Unlike traditional rollups, Botanix creates a decentralized network of multi-sig validators to bring EVM capabilities to Bitcoin while maintaining censorship resistance. Willem explains why decentralization matters for DeFi applications, how their validator system works with Bitcoin staking, and why they've chosen a different path than rollups. With mainnet launch planned for Q2, Botanix aims to enable Bitcoin holders to use their BTC in familiar DeFi applications without sacrificing security.

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Notes:

- Spider chains prioritize decentralization over speed

- Botanix launching mainnet in Q2 2025

- Initial 15 validators expanding to hundreds

- Block time is 5 seconds with ~$0.01 fees

- Uses Bitcoin as gas fee, no separate token

- Validators will stake 3-5 BTC as bond

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:21 Intro

01:04 Spiderchain

02:20 Proof of stake on layer 2

06:14 Risk vs reward

08:02 Spiderchain vs rollup

14:55 BitVM

16:42 ZK tech

20:34 Data availability w/ Spierchains

21:25 Data on Bitcoin chain

22:13 Alt DA

24:23 Updates on Botanix

26:47 Wen token?

28:00 Primary users?

30:27 Block interval

30:50 Decentralization design limits

32:55 Fees

33:43 Porting ETH apps to Botanix

34:52 Bitcoin staking

36:34 EVM wallet compatibility

37:28 Place in L2 ecosystem

39:35 Functional BitVM rollup?

40:32 Changes to BTC

41:16 L2 protocol consensus?

42:17 Social consensus in BTC

45:49 Ordinals & Runes

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

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