Kevin He, co-founder of Bitlayer and an important participant in the Bitcoin ecosystem, reflected on his entrepreneurial journey in the blockchain industry and how he came to be involved with the Bitcoin ecosystem. Kevin shared his views on the future development of the Bitcoin ecosystem and believes that the influx of institutional funds and the iteration of infrastructure such as BitVM are driving the BTC ecosystem toward a crucial turning point.
Based on real market and user demands, the Bitlayer technology team led by Kevin is building two core products: the BTC bridge (BitVM Bridge) and Bitcoin Rollup (Bitlayer Network), addressing the two core issues of how to bring BTC into the multi-chain ecosystem with minimal trust and how to build a thriving Layer 2 ecosystem based on BTC.
Summary of Views:
· The BTC ecosystem presents different scenarios in the Eastern and Western markets: the European and American markets remain hot, while pessimism in the Chinese community stems from overly high early expectations.
· The uniqueness of the BTC ecosystem lies in the potential for massive off-chain financial activities to migrate on-chain, with the current bottleneck being insufficient infrastructure. In the future, changes in the holder structure and iterations based on technologies such as BitVM will become the turning point, driving more BTC and trading volume on-chain.
· BitVM breaks through the security and programmability trade-off of Bitcoin scaling through OP Rollup and ZK verification, without requiring protocol upgrades and achieving strong consensus within the community. Bitlayer is the first team that clearly develops bridges and Layer 2 solutions based on BitVM, promoting the implementation of this technology in various scenarios.
· The yield structure of YBTC includes two categories: trading-related income and protocol incentives, with overall income being considerable and attractive. YBTC has significant advantages in security and yield generation capability, representing the third-generation technological direction for wrapped BTC, providing stronger support for on-chain applications in the BTC ecosystem.
· Institutional collaboration is an indispensable part of achieving scale goals. Bitlayer will continue to deepen cooperation with ETF issuers and treasury companies, promoting the development of on-chain applications in the BTC ecosystem.
· The valuation logic of the crypto market is shifting from 'market dream ratio' to 'price-to-earnings ratio.' The previously vision-driven stories in the crypto ecosystem, with the improvement of infrastructure and resolution of performance bottlenecks, now require developers to clarify whom they serve, what value they create, and what their profit model is.
· In the context of the fully on-chain financial era, developers should anchor user needs, focusing on Bitcoin yield scenarios, combining technology and resource endowments, developing innovative applications, and jointly building ecological prosperity.
Entrepreneurial Journey: Kevin's blockchain journey and the origin of Bitlayer.
After graduating from Peking University in 2010, Kevin entered the workforce and worked at several internet companies. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and has attempted to start businesses multiple times throughout his career, accumulating rich experience.
In 2013, Kevin embarked on his first entrepreneurial venture, focusing on the SaaS field, where the product gained some influence in the domestic market, but due to challenges in the domestic market, even with good product performance, he ultimately failed to achieve scale profitability. Subsequently, Kevin shifted to the casual gaming industry, successfully developing a product that compensated for the financial losses of his previous entrepreneurial attempt, and it was this experience that made Kevin deeply aware of the hardships and opportunities of entrepreneurship.
In 2017, due to an opportunity for resource integration, Kevin entered the blockchain industry, co-founding a public chain team with several senior experts from Alibaba and serving as chief architect. Before the arrival of the EVM fully compatible era, the team achieved multiple innovations in technical architecture, successfully launching the public chain mainnet and conducting a listing. This experience allowed Kevin to first feel the complexity and potential of the blockchain industry.
In 2020, Huobi Group recognized the potential of smart chains and entered the public chain field. Kevin led the R&D team to join Huobi, responsible for public chain business. At that time, Kevin quickly assembled a team, all of whom possessed deep experience in public chain development, networking, and application deployment. The HECO ecological chain created also experienced a bright moment from late 2020 to early 2021, with daily transaction volumes reaching 4 million and TVL exceeding $10 billion. However, due to policy changes and strategic adjustments within the company management, Huobi exited the Chinese market.
After leaving Huobi in 2023, Kevin joined a Hong Kong-listed company, New Fire Technology, leading a team to develop an MPC custody platform, which performed excellently and is currently steadily advancing commercialization. At the end of the same year, Kevin began providing technical support to ABCDE Capital, participating in the technical due diligence of several BTC ecosystem projects. This experience also prompted Kevin to think: rather than watching the Bitcoin ecosystem wave pass by, why not personally assemble a team to create a more groundbreaking project?
After more than two months of in-depth research, Kevin and the team decided to focus on the field of Bitcoin scaling, aiming to create a truly innovative project with application scenarios. At that time, the release of the BitVM white paper sparked extensive attention in the community, with multiple mainstream Bitcoin media covering the news, but there were widespread doubts about the feasibility of BitVM's implementation, with claims that it could take three to five years to achieve.
However, Kevin saw an opportunity. With past technical accumulation and experience, he believes that by adjusting the technical route, BitVM-related applications could be implemented within one to two years. Based on this judgment, Kevin and another co-founder of Bitlayer, Charlie, jointly initiated the Bitlayer project, quickly completing multiple rounds of financing. The team size once approached 100 people and is currently stabilized at about 60 people, focusing on R&D while also equipped with operational and marketing teams to support project advancement. The specific division of labor is as follows:
· R&D Team (about 30-40 people), divided into two main directions:
Research Team: Focusing on cutting-edge research for the next 6 months to 1 year, involving technology exploration and innovation, laying the foundation for long-term development.
Engineering Team: Leading the landing of core products, focusing on the implementation of Bitlayer's core products, including the cross-chain bridge and Layer 2 architecture based on BitVM.
· Operations and Marketing Team (about 20 people): Responsible for project operations, market promotion, and related support work, ensuring Bitlayer's brand influence and commercialization progress in the market.
Over the past year, the Bitlayer team has focused on developing BitVM technology, with two products already launched: the latest generation cross-chain bridge BitVM Bridge, which is the latest generation BTC bridge solution based on BitVM; and Bitcoin Rollup, for which Bitlayer has designed and developed a Rollup solution based on BitVM, aimed at enhancing Bitcoin's scalability and efficiency.
Building DeFi applications on Bitcoin Layer 2 is a key step in unlocking the long-term value of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
From a technical perspective, inscriptions and runes are essentially asset issuance protocols. Their emergence adds asset issuance functionality to the Bitcoin ecosystem, upgrading Bitcoin from 'converting electricity into Bitcoin' to a platform that supports asset issuance, which is a significant breakthrough for the BTC ecosystem. Kevin acknowledges its significance from a technical standpoint.
Whether the assets issued by Bitcoin can be 'hyped' or widely applied depends on the application scenarios. The characteristics of Bitcoin Layer 1 limit its development potential: one block every 10 minutes, and simple programming scripts are difficult to support complex applications. Even just realizing the exchange between different assets on Layer 1 faces price fluctuations and slippage risks due to block confirmation times, with a bumpy delivery process, making it hard to meet users' demands for efficient transactions. Therefore, Kevin is not optimistic about developing complex applications on Bitcoin Layer 1.
In contrast, the technology route based on BitVM is more feasible: it utilizes Bitcoin Layer 1's settlement ability to verify Layer 2's computational state. This verification process is less time-sensitive, does not require second-level responses, and will not place excessive load pressure on Layer 1, making it suitable as the core settlement layer. Inscriptions and runes can be issued on Layer 1, but their application potential should be realized on Layer 2, as Layer 2 provides lower transaction costs, richer application scenarios, and faster transaction speeds, making it more user-friendly.
Overall, inscriptions and runes as asset issuance protocols have ignited the first flame for the BTC ecosystem, holding pioneering significance. However, their long-term value depends on specific application scenarios. Kevin believes that developing rich DeFi applications on Layer 2 is key to better meet user demands and further promote ecosystem development.
Changes in holder structure and technological iterations such as BitVM will drive the BTC ecosystem toward a turning point.
There is a significant difference in perception between Eastern and Western markets regarding the current state of the BTC ecosystem. The Chinese community feels that the current market performance is below expectations due to early high expectations for the BTC ecosystem, with some even claiming that the BTC ecosystem is 'dead.' In contrast, the European and American markets remain active. As a practitioner, Kevin maintains an optimistic attitude towards the industry.
Regarding the discussion of whether the 'BTC ecosystem is dead', Kevin believes it is important to clarify the standards for judging whether a public chain ecosystem is 'alive' or 'prosperous.' Successful blockchain ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana typically possess the following characteristics:
· Main Token FDV continues to rise: The growth in token value is an important indicator of ecosystem vitality.
· Diverse Application Scenarios: The ecosystem needs a variety of practical applications to attract users and developers.
· Extensive Public Participation: Able to spark the interest and participation of ordinary users, forming a lively community atmosphere.
Measuring this, the BTC ecosystem has indeed not reached the expectations set at the beginning of 2023 during the inscription craze; however, the BTC ecosystem has its uniqueness: for example, Bitcoin-related applications (such as lending, risk management, and yield products) do exist, but they have long been off-chain rather than on-chain. This is because Bitcoin's underlying design was initially positioned as a payment system, rather than a DeFi or on-chain application platform.
There are limitations in Bitcoin's on-chain infrastructure: Bitcoin was originally designed as a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment system. However, years of practice have shown that in small payment scenarios, stablecoins dominate over Bitcoin. As the earliest mainstream scaling solution for Bitcoin, the Lightning Network focuses on payment functionality, but after years of development, it has also failed to meet market expectations for the Bitcoin ecosystem.
To achieve breakthroughs in the Bitcoin ecosystem, the key is to introduce a Turing-complete virtual machine (VM), such as Ethereum's EVM or Solana's SVM. However, Bitcoin itself cannot integrate such mechanisms, which is precisely the value of Bitlayer based on BitVM technology (principles described later).
Kevin believes that the turning point for the BTC ecosystem will appear in the next 1-2 years, with two main driving factors:
1. The change in the structure of BTC holders. The initiation of this round of the BTC bull market has been largely driven by institutional investors. More and more institutions (such as listed companies, family offices, etc.) are shifting from observation to active participation, focusing on how to purchase, hold, and subsequently apply BTC. In addition, institutions like Franklin Templeton are providing BTC-related services to clients, reflecting a strong demand for asset management (such as yield generation, risk hedging). This change will create new market demands, driving the development of the BTC ecosystem.
2. The iteration of infrastructure. Currently, most BTC-related financial activities remain off-chain rather than on-chain. The goal of the blockchain industry is to migrate more financial activities on-chain, which requires infrastructure upgrades. Traditional Bitcoin scaling solutions, such as the Lightning Network, focus on payment scenarios and have not become mainstream demands. However, on-chain verification technology based on BitVM provides new possibilities for the BTC ecosystem, allowing BTC to be placed in a virtual machine environment while retaining the fundamental security of BTC, supporting the development of DeFi protocols and trading protocols. This iteration of infrastructure will be a significant turning point for the BTC ecosystem's explosion.
In the next 2 to 3 years, Kevin expects the Bitcoin ecosystem to undergo the following changes:
· BTC and DeFi applications in DeFi protocols will see exponential growth, potentially growing 1-2 times to reach a scale of around 500,000 BTC.
· The proportion of on-chain trading volume related to BTC is increasing: currently, spot, futures, and perpetual contract trading of BTC are mainly concentrated off-chain. In the future, on-chain trading (such as decentralized exchanges GMX/HyperLiquid, etc.) will gradually rise, and it is expected that this indicator's proportion will increase from the current level to 20%-30%.
Overall, the BTC ecosystem presents different scenarios in the Eastern and Western markets: the European and American markets remain hot, while the pessimism in the Chinese community stems from overly high early expectations. The uniqueness of the BTC ecosystem lies in the potential for massive off-chain financial activities to migrate on-chain, with the current bottleneck being insufficient infrastructure. In the future, changes in the holder structure and iterations based on technologies such as BitVM will become the turning point, driving more BTC and trading volume on-chain. Bitlayer is committed to this, looking forward to bringing groundbreaking progress to the BTC ecosystem.
Bitlayer's two core products and technological advantages.
Regarding Bitlayer's two main products — bridge and Layer 2 network, Kevin elaborated on BitVM's advantages compared to other solutions from two aspects: first, the technical framework and core advantages of BitVM, and second, Bitlayer's role and contribution in the BitVM space.
Firstly, the essence of BitVM is based on Bitcoin's optimistic Rollup (Optimistic Rollup, abbreviated as OP Rollup), which is recognized by many institutions and has become the mainstream technical route for Bitcoin scaling. Compared to Ethereum's OP Rollup, the difference lies in the challenge and verification stages. Ethereum's OP Rollup adopts the 'execute first, verify later' optimistic assumption, that is, it assumes that off-chain transactions are valid, then enters a challenge period, replaying transactions through an intermediate layer virtual machine (such as MIPS or WASM) to verify whether the execution results are correct. If verification fails (such as state inconsistency), it triggers related actions, such as pausing Layer 2, entering withdrawal mode, and allowing users to withdraw funds from Layer 1. However, due to the limitations of Bitcoin's script language, it is relatively difficult to implement similar virtual machines on Bitcoin, which was a key concern of the community at the initial release of the BitVM white paper.
In March to April 2024, a new consensus emerged in the community: rather than verifying any computation through complex intermediate virtual machines, it is better to directly verify zero-knowledge proofs (ZK Proof), which solves the on-chain verification problem and is easier to implement. ZK verification serves as deterministic computation, requiring no complete intermediate virtual machines, only that the ZK verifier is sliced and replayed on Bitcoin Layer 1. The entire process involves two roles: Prover and Challenger, where the Prover submits the proof commitment and BTC stake to Layer 1, waiting for the verifier to challenge. If an error is found, the Prover's stake will be forfeited.
This BitVM technology model based on OP Rollup brings the following advantages:
· Breaking the trade-off between security and programmability: Traditional Bitcoin scaling solutions face a dilemma: payment channels (like Lightning Network) have high security but only support simple applications; sidechains support virtual machines but lack security. BitVM inherits Bitcoin's security through on-chain verification while supporting virtual machines, offering strong programmability.
· No need for Bitcoin protocol upgrades: Unlike other solutions that require Bitcoin protocol upgrades, BitVM can be realized based on existing technologies (such as Taproot). Historical experience shows that Bitcoin upgrades take time and community consensus is difficult to reach, so the feasibility of BitVM becomes its key advantage.
· Strong Community Consensus: In 2023, Bitcoin scaling solutions have blossomed, but BitVM is gradually forming a strong consensus. The criteria for measuring consensus include mainstream institutional investment and community activity, among which projects in the BitVM space represented by Bitlayer have already secured significant financing; the community has also continuously iterated from the first to the third generation, demonstrating strong community vitality.
Bitlayer is a pioneer in the BitVM space, with the project rapidly initiated after the release of the BitVM white paper. The team predicted it would have a profound impact on Bitcoin scaling, and this decision has been validated by subsequent financing, project mainnet launch, and application implementation. Bitlayer is the first team to clearly develop bridges and Layer 2 solutions based on BitVM, while other teams are mostly followers. Currently, Bitlayer has about 40 people in its R&D and engineering team (far exceeding the industry average of about 10 people), due to the high difficulty of implementing the BitVM technology stack, primarily involving the following key tasks:
· ZK Verifier Development: It requires implementing ZK verifiers using Bitcoin scripts while mastering ZK technology and optimizing verifier size to reduce on-chain burden.
· Complete Protocol Stack Implementation: Develop Prover and Challenger roles, with workload benchmarked against Ethereum Optimism.
· Product Implementation: Develop user-oriented bridge solutions and Layer 2 products, after 18 months of effort, Bitlayer's BitVM Bridge has successfully launched on the mainnet.
Bitlayer cannot be without ecological cooperation. First, BitVM operation requires support from mining pools. Thanks to Bitlayer's seven to eight years of accumulation in the blockchain industry and good relationships with mining pools, Bitlayer has established strategic cooperation with mainstream mining pools (such as AntPool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool) as of May 2025, securing nearly 40% of Bitcoin computing power support to ensure that challenge transactions are on-chain. This is an advantage that other teams find difficult to match. Second, Bitlayer is building a decentralized network, introducing mining pools, blockchain infrastructure providers, capital (such as Framework), and security institutions as validators, and plans to further expand the scale of validators to enhance network decentralization. Finally, Bitlayer ensures that the assets online have yield scenarios by collaborating with mainstream blockchains (such as Sui, Solana, and Avalanche) and applications (Navi, Cetus, and Momentum in the Sui ecosystem, and Folks Finance on Avalanche).
Compared to other solutions, Bitlayer differs in its technical direction and depth of investment. Specifically, Bitlayer divides the Bitcoin scaling track into four quadrants based on security and programmability dimensions. Some projects lean towards sidechain solutions, focusing on EVM compatibility, with security relying on their own mechanisms. Bitlayer achieves a higher balance of security and programmability through BitVM, while insisting on independent R&D (not outsourcing or collaborating). Additionally, Bitlayer's collaboration with mining pools and ecosystem building can ensure practicality after mainnet launch.
In summary, BitVM breaks through the security and programmability trade-off of Bitcoin scaling through OP Rollup and ZK verification, without requiring protocol upgrades and achieving strong consensus within the community. As a pioneer in the BitVM space, Bitlayer leverages deep R&D investment and ecosystem collaboration to promote the launch of bridges and Layer 2 products, hoping to lay the foundation for the future development of the BTC ecosystem.
YBTC: Security, programmability, and yield generation capability.
Regarding how BitVM Bridge, through locking BTC, issues Yield BTC (hereinafter referred to as YBTC), guarantees the security and redeemability of the underlying asset, and its advantages compared to other wrapped BTC (such as WBTC), Kevin answered from two aspects: first, the underlying mechanism of YBTC, and second, the differences with competitors.
Firstly, the underlying mechanism of YBTC is based on BitVM technology, ensuring two points: first, the underlying BTC cannot be appropriated, and second, users can redeem assets without trust. Security is core; BitVM ensures that the underlying BTC will not be illegally transferred through the challenge mechanism of OP Rollup. Only funds verified and challenged can be withdrawn; otherwise, BTC will be locked at the original address, preventing asset loss that would cause YBTC to decouple. Regarding redemption, BitVM minimizes the trust model, allowing users to redeem BTC directly without relying on third-party (such as exchanges) approval. This mechanism avoids the awkward situation where assets are in the address but cannot be withdrawn, ensuring users have complete control over their funds.
Compared to competitors, YBTC's advantages can be analyzed from three dimensions: security, programmability, and yield generation capability.
· Security: Among the various wrapped BTC, WBTC has the largest market share, but its centralized custody mechanism has faced repeated scrutiny. Last September, Kevin wrote an article tracking the changes in WBTC's custody control, drawing attention from related parties who requested the article to be removed. The community's concerns reflect the market's demand for the evolution of custody mechanisms. The security models for wrapped BTC can be divided into three generations:
First Generation: Such as WBTC or Fireblocks, relying on multi-signature or centralized custody, where users need institutional approval to redeem, raising community concerns about the risk of asset appropriation.
Second Generation: Such as tBTC, replacing multi-signature with a distributed network but still requiring majority node approval, maintaining the essence of the security model.
Third Generation: Based on BitVM's YBTC, it only requires a single validating node to function normally to redeem BTC, greatly enhancing security and representing a revolutionary breakthrough.
· Programmability: Beyond security, wrapped assets must support complex applications such as DeFi; otherwise, they have limited significance. YBTC, relying on BitVM's virtual machine support, offers high programmability suitable for diverse DeFi scenarios.
· Yield Generation Capability: YBTC launches yield-generating products through official and partner channels, with yields exceeding 5%, far surpassing traditional wrapped assets, which is also more attractive to users.
In summary, YBTC ensures the underlying BTC is safe and redeemable through BitVM's OP Rollup and ZK verification mechanisms, with minimal trust design enhancing user experience. Compared to competitors like WBTC, YBTC has significant advantages in security and yield generation capability, representing the third-generation technological direction for wrapped BTC and providing stronger support for on-chain applications in the BTC ecosystem.
Regarding the sources of income for YBTC, Kevin divides them into two categories: the first is trading-related income, such as basis trading and arbitrage strategies, which are relatively stable sources of income; during favorable market conditions, yields can reach 8% or even higher. The second category is on-chain incentive income. Different protocols on various blockchains (such as Ethereum, Solana, etc.) will launch various incentive mechanisms, allowing users to earn additional returns by participating in these protocols.
The potential for collaboration between Bitlayer and BTC ETF and treasury strategy-listed companies.
Institutional participation is the core driving force behind this round of the Bitcoin bull market. With changes in the holder structure, especially the increase in the proportion of institutional investors, the demand for on-chain applications has surged, directly driving Bitlayer's business direction.
Currently, the institutional participants in the Bitcoin ecosystem mainly include two types: ETF issuers and treasury companies. In the ETF space, influenced by regulatory changes (such as Hong Kong being the first to lift related restrictions), future ETF funds are expected to connect to on-chain yield generation or other scenarios; the BTC allocation of treasury companies (such as listed companies) is more flexible and has partially participated in on-chain DeFi or CeFi protocols. Currently, Bitlayer is in intensive communication and advancing cooperation with 21Shares and Franklin Templeton, planning to launch trust products that combine YBTC and the assets of ecosystem partners to expand application scenarios.
Taking Franklin Templeton as an example, its on-chain lending products are expected to land on the Bitlayer chain by 2025, becoming a typical case of institutional collaboration. In addition, Bitlayer is actively synchronizing with other Bitcoin treasury companies, aiming to bridge BTC's scale to 50,000 to 100,000 BTC through BitVM, while creating an annual yield of over 5% for customers.
Institutional collaboration is an indispensable part of achieving scale goals. Bitlayer will continue to deepen collaboration with two types of institutions, promoting the development of on-chain applications in the BTC ecosystem.
When will a killer application appear in the Bitcoin ecosystem?
Regarding why killer applications have yet to appear in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and how Bitlayer supports native applications and explores the possibility of stablecoins, Kevin believes that an analysis is needed from three aspects: the uniqueness of the Bitcoin ecosystem, the demand for application scenarios, and Bitlayer's specific practices.
Firstly, the Bitcoin ecosystem has not yet produced killer applications, which is closely related to the inadequacy of its infrastructure. In the past, the Bitcoin ecosystem lacked the scenarios and capabilities to support on-chain DeFi applications, with users primarily focused on holding, lacking a rich variety of financial application scenarios. With the improvements in infrastructure, such as the introduction of technologies like BitVM, the construction of an on-chain financial ecosystem has become possible. At the same time, the market is also changing, especially with the entry of institutional investors, who view Bitcoin as a commodity and increasingly demand yield-generating assets. This provides motivation for the development of on-chain applications.
In the past, some projects related to the Bitcoin ecosystem made pioneering attempts in innovation and professionalism, such as locking BTC on Bitcoin Layer 1 through time-lock mechanisms for cross-chain mapping to support validator staking, achieving functionalities similar to AVS. However, the project design itself may lead to two issues: first, the time-lock mechanism limits the risk exposure (about 10%), restricting application scenarios to low-risk staking activities, which in turn limits yield and application scope; second, demand on the user side has not emerged on a large scale, and the demand for AVS (Active Validation Service) similar to EigenLayer has not been fully released, limiting its ecological expansion.
Bitlayer's approach emphasizes balancing Bitcoin's security and programmability, allowing users to choose high-yield or low-risk application scenarios according to their risk preferences, providing greater flexibility and possibilities.
In terms of supporting native applications, Bitlayer's strategy starts from the logic of migrating offline financial activities to on-chain. Offline Bitcoin financial activities are already very mature; the key is how to attract users to migrate through on-chain transparency, self-custody advantages, low transaction costs, high speed, and low latency. For example, solving KYC issues and providing transparent mechanisms to mitigate counterparty risk are all advantages of being on-chain. Bitlayer's practice is to start from typical application scenarios, first meeting users' urgent needs, and then expanding to a broader ecosystem. The YBTC product launched in collaboration with partners offers yield-generating features, attracting thousands of BTC with an annualized yield of 5%-8%, becoming a typical case.
In the past year, Bitlayer has collaborated with multiple ecosystem partners to incubate several noteworthy application projects:
· Desyn Protocol: A multi-chain yield protocol, currently has a TVL of several hundred million dollars on Bitlayer. Bitlayer collaborates closely with it, and the official yield-generating products also rely on this protocol, performing well.
· Jasper: An on-chain options platform, the DeFi version of Bitcoin options, its products implement Bitcoin options operations in a simple manner, gaining popularity among users.
· Other Projects: Bitlayer is actively promoting projects related to stablecoins with ecosystem partners to inject more innovation into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In summary, the killer application for the Bitcoin ecosystem has not yet emerged, stemming from infrastructure limitations and the demand side not being fully mature. Bitlayer provides security and programmability through BitVM technology, combining the logic of migration from off-chain to on-chain, prioritizing the development of yield-generating and other urgent need scenarios, and gradually building a rich native application ecosystem through cooperation with projects like Desyn and Jasper, laying the foundation for the future development of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In the fully on-chain financial era, developers should focus on real needs and BTC yield scenarios.
For developers newly entering the Bitcoin ecosystem, Kevin suggests focusing on the following trends and directions. Compared to 2017 or 2021, the blockchain industry has undergone significant changes. In the past, the Bitcoin ecosystem leaned more towards a fundamentalist state; as the user base expands and the circles change, especially with the entry of institutional investors, the market is redefining the demand and understanding of on-chain applications. One significant trend is the large-scale migration of assets and transactions on-chain. Whether it is on-chain trading platforms or Bitcoin scaling solutions represented by Bitlayer, they are promoting the 'fully on-chain era' in the financial sector and are progressing vigorously.
In light of this broader context, developers should first focus on user needs, including both institutional and retail dimensions, with clarity on what users want being key to successful development. Then, combining their resource endowments and technical advantages, they should select specific entry points. Taking the Bitcoin ecosystem as an example, the most promising direction at this stage is the yield scenario, relying on BitVM technology; Bitlayer integrates a large number of Bitcoin resources to provide infrastructure for yield-generating applications to attract more developers to join and develop diversified yield products based on the Bitlayer platform to collectively meet user needs.
In summary, in the context of the fully on-chain financial era, developers should anchor user needs, focus on Bitcoin yield scenarios, combine technology and resource endowments, and develop innovative applications to jointly build ecological prosperity.
The valuation logic of the crypto market is shifting from 'market dream ratio' to 'price-to-earnings ratio'.
As a professional in the Bitcoin field transitioning from technology to company operations, Kevin has accumulated many lessons and gains over the past few years. He deeply understands that developers must pay attention to market changes and user needs, especially the evolution of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Currently, the valuation logic of the crypto market is shifting from 'market dream ratio' to 'price-to-earnings ratio.' The previously vision-driven stories in the crypto ecosystem now require developers to clarify whom they serve, what value they create, and what their profit model is as infrastructure improves and performance bottlenecks are resolved.
In the future, Bitlayer will increase its business investment to meet user demands, especially for Bitcoin asset management needs, such as yield generation, risk hedging, lending, and other DeFi scenarios. Bitlayer's mission is to migrate more Bitcoin asset management demands on-chain, creating a safe, efficient, and transparent environment.
Based on this, Bitlayer's roadmap is divided into three phases:
· Market Validation (PMF): In the past year, the market demand for yield scenarios has been validated, making it a direction worth deepening.
· Security Model Implementation: Building a secure and programmable scaling solution through the BitVM bridge and Bitcoin Rollup, ensuring the security and application flexibility of BTC assets.
· High-Frequency Trading Environment Construction: In the fully on-chain era, low-frequency blockchains lack survival space, and high-frequency trading scenarios are the core direction of Bitlayer's technological evolution. Therefore, at this stage, Bitlayer will focus on creating a low-friction, high-frequency trading on-chain environment, and is expected to release more information about high-frequency blockchains soon.
