When everyone can claim to be Layer2, a more fundamental question begins to emerge: what does the Bitcoin ecosystem truly need?
Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
In the cryptocurrency market since 2024, Bitcoin Layer2 has almost become a generalized label. From sidechains to Rollups, from state channels to any EVM-compatible systems, numerous projects have claimed to be Bitcoin L2, competing for narrative dominance in a vacuum of discourse. However, when everyone can call themselves Layer2, a more fundamental question arises: what does the Bitcoin ecosystem truly need?
The development of Bitcoin L2 does not require more stories, but rather verifiable, operational engineering solutions with clear standards and sustainable economic models. GOAT Network has gradually established its technical positioning in this context. It has not chosen the path of issuing tokens for hype, nor relied on abstract concepts to package technology, but instead proposed a set of executable and verifiable solutions centered around the engineering implementation of BitVM2, along with an economic brown paper and industry benchmark standards, attempting to reshape a credible path for Bitcoin L2.
Origins and Motivations: The "Chronic Illness" of BTC L2 and the Choice of "Disruptors"
BTCFi has long hovered between technological ideals and real-world bottlenecks, with its fundamental dilemma reducible to a typical triangular paradox: security must align with the consensus mechanism of the Bitcoin mainnet, functionality requires support for scalability and intelligence, but all of this must be built on the premise of not sacrificing the essence of decentralization. More troublesome is that the native BTC asset still lacks a stable revenue path, relying for a long time on the funding rates of centralized platforms or incentives from other chain tokens, making it difficult to build a sustainable financial ecosystem. This series of structural flaws has led many Bitcoin L2 projects to ultimately fall into the awkward paths of pseudo-bridging, centralized custody, or even reliance on Ethereum cross-chain infrastructure, resulting in technical ambiguity and commercial incoherence.
From the beginning, GOAT Network chose a vertical strategy, emphasizing implementation priority and technical verifiability. In terms of hardware architecture, it abandoned the still immature RISC-V in favor of the more industrially stable MIPS architecture, and combined it with a series of circuit optimizations to build Ziren (originally zkMIPS), establishing an efficient on-chain computing environment. In system design, it constructed a non-custodial, on-chain verifiable execution path through the combination of BitVM2 and a decentralized Sequencer architecture, achieving a traceable state and verifiable data on-chain adjudication mechanism.
In terms of strategic path, GOAT has not entrusted its fate to B2B models or project co-branding promotions, but instead focuses on Bitcoin zkVM as the main axis, building the most authentic zk scenario use cases from the ground up. While most so-called L2 projects are still spinning their wheels in narrative quagmires, GOAT has already reshaped Bitcoin L2 from a conceptual narrative into a sustainable practical solution.
The Evolution and Engineering Implementation of BitVM2
The architecture proposed by GOAT BitVM2 is a key step in moving Bitcoin scaling technology from theoretical feasibility to engineering practicality. Compared to the earlier BitVM v1's logic gate simulation and fraud proof concept, GOAT's version achieves a system reconstruction in security mechanisms, challenge efficiency, and execution economics, pushing Bitcoin's native zkRollup towards practical usability for the first time. GOAT BitVM2 has shortened the challenge period from the original 14 days to less than 1 day, with its architecture combining zkMIPS zero-knowledge proofs, decentralized sorters, and multi-round challenge reward mechanisms to construct a complete Bitcoin native ZK Rollup solution. Specifically, its core breakthroughs are reflected in three aspects:
In terms of security, it proposes a commitment mechanism for the L2 validator set, achieving L2 layer consensus verification and solving the double-spending attack problem for Operators;
In terms of efficiency, it combines a simplified reimbursement process for L2, based on a real-time proof network of zkMIPS, to improve the reimbursement efficiency for Operators;
In terms of incentives, it proposes a Universal Operator scheme, implementing role randomization based on cryptographic lotteries to build a systematic incentive mechanism, ensuring balanced interests among all participants (Sequencer, Operator, and Challenger).
Currently, the GOAT BitVM2 testnet has been launched, and a demonstration of Ziren in off-chain computation + mainnet challenge simulation has been completed. In the testing environment, the system supports zkRollup execution paths based on native BTC inputs, verifying that L2 execution results can achieve on-chain deterministic adjudication without the need for trust, laying the engineering foundation for the comprehensive deployment of BTC L2 applications in the future.
At the same time, GOAT Network is actively promoting innovative explorations of BitVM3. As a member of the BitVM Alliance, GOAT Network primarily focuses on the combination of DV-SNARK and NIZK for verifiable obfuscated circuits, and has taken the lead in completing prototype implementation and testing. Through this breakthrough, the efficiency of on-chain challenges has achieved over a 1000-fold improvement, reducing challenge costs to 1/1000 of the original model.
GOAT Network will continue to collaborate with ecosystem partners to promote the engineering and large-scale application of BTC Layer 2 technology, accelerating the functional expansion and value release of the Bitcoin network.
Economic Model and "Revenue Loop"
In all explorations of Bitcoin financialization, while the technical architecture is certainly important, the true foundation determining whether Bitcoin L2 projects can achieve long-term sustainability always lies in whether their economic models possess coherence and closure. The "Bitcoin zkRollup Economic Brown Paper 2.0" released by GOAT Network revolves around this core issue, aiming not to construct a narrative space of empty incentives, but to systematically establish an incentive structure centered around the native security and usage behavior of BTC, allowing L2 to no longer rely on centralized bridging, false liquidity, or third-party token transfusions, but to create, distribute, and continuously release revenue based on real network usage and the behavior of system participants.
In the first version of the previously released "Economic Brown Paper," based on BTC staking for interest, GOAT further proposed a dual-token model, where pBTC represents the locked principal, allowing users to redeem at any time, ensuring that asset sovereignty is not lost; yBTC serves as the system's native revenue certificate, representing the net value returns generated by real economic activities on-chain. Whether it is transaction fees, sorting rights revenue, or challenger rewards, they are all distributed in the form of yBTC. This design effectively separates revenue from principal, eliminating the need to forcibly attract liquidity with high APY as bait, instead allowing revenue to become a natural product of the usage process, forming a clear and traceable revenue loop.
Compared to other L2 solutions that rely on cross-chain bridges or ERC20 wrapped assets, the native revenue path constructed by GOAT is more robust in engineering terms. Thanks to the combination of BitVM2 and zkVM architectures, BTC can enter the L2 execution environment without custody and participate in the complete transaction and application lifecycle through off-chain execution and on-chain verification mechanisms. What is published on-chain is merely the verification logic of state commitments and computation results, with the entire process requiring no third-party token intermediaries and no reliance on centralized gateways, thus truly achieving the architectural goal of not compromising the control of the BTC mainnet and not compromising the composability of Layer 2.
On top of the operational mechanism, GOAT further proposes the concept of a modular economic layer, which not only supplements the current incentive logic for the three types of roles but also anticipates the coordination capabilities of cross-protocol resources in a future multi-application parallel ecosystem. As more DeFi, RWA, or payment scenarios are integrated, developers will be allowed to define their own revenue distribution mechanisms, build internal liquidity feedback models, and use yBTC as a unified measurement coordinate to achieve the combination and collaboration of incentive logic across different scenarios. Ultimately, this economic layer will evolve into a collaborative financial foundation on top of Bitcoin L2.
As Kevin Liu, a core contributor to GOAT Network, stated, true BTCFi has never begun, and its real beginning must be predicated on the dual closure of native security and native revenue.
If the "Economic Brown Paper 2.0" paints a self-consistent revenue loop for GOAT Network, then what truly brings this logic into reality is its product and ecosystem matrix launched around BTCFi. The value of Bitcoin's native Layer 2 should not remain in theory and narrative, but should provide holders with a truly usable, sustainable, and non-custodial revenue entry point.
GOAT Network has officially released a complete set of BTCFi revenue products, offering diverse choices for users with different risk preferences. GOAT Safebox, as a zero-risk option, allows users to participate in decentralized sorter incentives through a three-month BTC lock-up, earning approximately 2% on-chain revenue, particularly suitable for institutional investors; the BTCB/DOGEB Vault achieves 5% annualized returns through cross-chain bridging and gas fee backflow, targeting conservative users; while Sequencer PoS Staking opens up a medium-risk path, with staking annualized returns of up to 10% based on a multi-currency PoS and decentralized sorter network; additionally, the Avalon lending market allows for flexible borrowing and liquidity allocation of BTC and BTC LST on Layer 2, truly bringing Bitcoin into DeFi-level capital efficiency scenarios.
Today, the ecological landscape of GOAT Network has begun to take shape, covering multiple directions such as DeFi, infrastructure tools, cross-chain bridges, NFTs, gaming, and sorter nodes, attracting developers, users, institutions, and communities to participate together. As the ecosystem continues to expand, GOAT Network is evolving into a financial operating system characterized by sustainable revenue, open collaboration, and diverse innovation.
From "Words to Action" to "Industry Baseline"
If technology and economic models are the first phase of GOAT Network's proof of implementation, then its release of the "Bitcoin Native Layer 2 Network Benchmark Proposal" represents its beginning to assume a higher level of ecological responsibility, aiming to delineate clear boundaries for the chaotic Bitcoin L2 concepts. In the face of numerous projects that are nominally L2 but actually rely on federated multi-signatures or external trust mechanisms, GOAT hopes to establish judgment criteria for native Layer 2 networks through a set of principles centered on the spirit of Bitcoin.
This proposal is divided into "Core Requirements" and "Optional Enhancements," emphasizing frequent anchoring to the Bitcoin mainnet, on-chain dispute resolution, permissionless mandatory exit, trust-minimized bridging structures, and the system's continued availability under attack or downtime. The standards are technically neutral, not favoring any specific architecture, as long as these principles are met, they can be considered Bitcoin native L2.
Unlike most protocols that set their own standards, GOAT takes it as a starting point for industry co-construction, emphasizing the openness and neutrality of standards. This is not only an extension of its engineering philosophy but also a clarification of the Bitcoin L2 concept in the current environment of semantic confusion.
GOAT Network has achieved the first real-time proving system operating in a production environment, becoming the first Bitcoin zkRollup project to support instant withdrawal initiation and full-chain visual proof.
GOAT Network states that all peg-out operations have been digitized, visualized, and verifiably on-chain, presented in real-time through a public UI page. The current system is fully open-source, does not rely on trust assumptions, and has built a complete closed loop from BTC deposit, on-chain interaction to withdrawal. The project team believes that this capability will redefine the technical standards of Bitcoin zkRollup and lay the foundation for the practical usability of BTCFi.
After completing the technical implementation and establishing industry benchmarks, GOAT Network has not limited its focus to engineering breakthroughs but has further shifted its emphasis to community building. In their view, the vitality of a decentralized network does not only come from the security of the code and the feasibility of the model but also depends on whether a sufficiently open and active community ecosystem can be formed.
GOAT has launched a multi-dimensional layout at the community level. Through the One Piece program, users can complete interactions such as socializing, cross-chain transactions, and mini-games at zero or low cost, and exchange points for token airdrops, becoming a major distribution channel for the early ecosystem. Unlike most projects that rely on airdrop hype, One Piece emphasizes long-term participation and diversified interactions. In August, GOAT Network announced the launch of the GOAT Vanguard Ambassador Program, recruiting Bitcoin pioneers, quality content creators, and like-minded community leaders globally to jointly lead the BTCFi narrative and promote the landing of Bitcoin L2 ecology and BTC native revenue innovation. In addition, the project has accumulated 34 BTC and officially launched it as the Ecosystem Pilot Fund, indicating in the most direct way that the project aims to incentivize the Bitcoin ecosystem with Bitcoin itself. Together, these three elements form another main channel beyond GOAT's technology, making Bitcoin's native Layer 2 a social experiment built and benefited by global users.
Establishing Order for the Next Phase of Bitcoin L2
The scaling path of Bitcoin is at a turning point. GOAT, with its systematic layout in technical implementation, economic model construction, and industry standard formulation, aims to become the "establisher" in this field. What is a truly native Bitcoin Layer 2? How can a trustless execution path be established? How can a sustainable native BTC revenue mechanism be constructed?
When concepts recede and buzzwords fade, what remains will be those systematic solutions that have standards, verifiability, and can operate continuously. What GOAT has built is not just a set of L2 products but a foundational rule set for the entire Bitcoin scaling ecosystem. It establishes order through engineering actions, laying the groundwork for the next phase of Bitcoin L2 and reshaping trust.
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