January 31, 2024 – ‘Build on Bitcoin‘ (BOB), the Layer 2 stack developed by the team behind leading Bitcoin DeFi platform Interlay, today announced OptiMine, an enhanced Bitcoin security feature for blockchains.
OptiMine is a security building block that brings Bitcoin PoW security to L2s, including ETH rollups and Bitcoin sidechains, while retaining high performance and throughput. It brings a new dimension of crypto economic security to the industry, combining the robustness of Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) with the flexibility and scalability of Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains.
“OptiMine allows us to enhance L2 solutions with Bitcoin’s PoW security, offering a powerful tool to make rollups more robust and reduce trust in Sequencers.” said BOB’s co-founder, Alexei Zamyatin. “You can think of OptiMine as Bitcoin’s answer to Ethereum’s restaking, aligning miners with the upcoming wave of Bitcoin L2s”.
The protocol has been developed in collaboration with a leading Bitcoin mining company, underlining the importance of L2 solutions for the Bitcoin mining community.
The Technological Breakthrough of OptiMine
OptiMine introduces a novel hybrid consensus technique called “Optimistically Sequenced Merged Mining” that allows L2s like BOB to inherit Bitcoin security, while being connected to other L1s like Etheruem. This dual capability is an industry first and aligns with BOB’s vision of being the connecting layer between Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems. This technique not only addresses a critical gap in the blockchain space, but also effectively combats the challenge of sparse block space and rising transaction fees. OptiMine is a first step towards BOB’s ultimate goal to achieve Bitcoin security for Bitcoin assets (BTC, Ordinals, BRC20) and Ethereum security for Ethereum assets (ETH, stablecoins, ERC20s) on L2s, thus uniting the strengths of both ecosystems.
OptiMine’s approach to crypto economic security involves:
Bitcoin PoW Security: Sequencers are nodes that collect and organize transactions for efficient processing on Bitcoin-based blockchain networks. OptiMine harnesses the full nodes run by miners, ensuring that rollup block producers, like Sequencers, are correctly creating blocks.
Fast Block Times: Achieving rapid block times is crucial for modern blockchain applications. OptiMine allows rollups to maintain c. 2 second block times, while the secure PoW finalization happens at slower intervals, c.1 minute.
Recovery Mechanisms: OptiMine introduces fallback protocols to maintain functionality and trust, even in the face of potential Sequencer or miner failures.
Decentralized Sequencers. OptiMine can also be used as a mechanism to sample Bitcoin miners into the set of active Sequencers, once a rollup has achieved Sequencer decentralization.
A Necessity in Today’s Crypto Landscape
OptiMine represents a significant advancement in blockchain technology by seamlessly aligning Bitcoin’s L2 solutions with the original Bitcoin blockchain and its miners by allowing Bitcoin miners to mine concurrently on both the Bitcoin network and BOB’s L2 solutions. As such, OptiMine presents miners with additional incentives and rewards, which is especially beneficial in light of Bitcoin halvings that diminish direct mining rewards. This innovative approach elevates OptiMine’s role in providing alternative revenue streams for miners, enhancing its appeal and utility.
For more information, visit: www.gobob.xyz.
About BOB
‘Build on Bitcoin’ (BOB) is at the forefront of blockchain innovation, offering a unique Bitcoin rollup stack that integrates Rust smart contracts, native Bitcoin libraries, and complete EVM compatibility. With the addition of OptiMine, BOB sets a new standard in blockchain security and versatility, providing a platform for developers to explore and expand the boundaries of blockchain technology.
Visit: www.gobob.xyz
Contact Information: BOB@transformgroup.com