Strata, a bitcoin zk validity rollup with evm execution.
Discussion
Is this another "trust minimised" multisig thing?
correct, still better than a federation :)
That depends who has the keys to the multisig :)
Yes.
A 1-of-n lifeness assumption of the operators.
As well as a 1-of-any to challenge a malicious bridge withdraw.
Waiting for this list :))
I don't understand how this is better than a layer two solution. It feels like ethereum defi tacked onto bitcoin. Am I way off here?
It is a layer two solution.
The two way peg is enforced with bitVM emulated zkproof.
That is a term that doesn't make sense to me in my economist brain. "Two way peg" evokes in my mind that a token representing a claim on an asset can be asserted into existence therefore creating more of the asset. The inverse is possible but not the latter. Maybe I need to see some praxis on this but the term on it's face seems to not make sense. Coupons can only be pegged to the asset.
Okay after reading on it, it seems to just be what people call a one way peg. And the way people are using "one way peg" is essentially misunderstanding what a monetary asset it. "Burning a token" when it transfers to another blockchain is a consumptive act. Money cannot be consumed (if it has monetary premium). Money is an asset that's sole purpose is to represent value and as a good is not meant to be consumed.
The "two way peg" metaphor is from the original sidechain discussion.
a sidechain is a blockchain where new tokens are created only when on the parent blockchain tokens get locked.
These tokens locked on the base layer can then only be spend, if the second layer tokens have been destroyed.
To some extend this is a money warehouse with transferable notes of deposit.
However the crucial idea originally was that this pay out mechanism is a smart contract, enforced by all Bitcoin nodes and not reliant on a set of trusted entities. This turns out to be not trivial at all, Liquid uses 11-of-15 trusted multisig signers, and even bitVM isn't perfectly trustless, but it's the latest massive improvement to the concept.
I guess I just see lightning, especially after the implementation of BOLT12 to be the most naturally scaling Layer 2 solution.
No token obfuscation,
HTLC to lock up BTC,
revocation secrets keep everyone honest,
Scales up and down as the financial flows call for it,
Better anonymity than a separate traceable block chain,
And most widely used now.
Sidechains, drivechains, and minted ecash seem interesting and have their use cases but if we are talking instant P2P transactions, with very low risk of ever getting rugged by a channel partner or fees bidding up on another chain, Lightning seems first in best dressed. I will say pathing needs some developer love but, that is the only gripe I've ever had with it.
Thats true, lightning is very impressive compared to alternatives.