BitcoinOS (BOS), a Bitcoin rollups protocol, successfully verified the first zero-knowledge (ZK) proof on the blockchain’s mainnet at 11:22 pm UTC on July 24.
The achievement makes it possible to unlock new levels of functionality and scalability on the Bitcoin mainnet without requiring further changes to the blockchain’s base layer.
In a written Q&A with Cointelegraph, Edan Yago, co-founder of BOS, said the development “represents an era where Bitcoin is no longer just digital gold.”
“It is also an operating system and a platform on which the entire world of decentralized applications can be built. [...] This marks a chapter where Ethereum, Solana and all of the other layer-1 projects are no longer safe from competition by Bitcoin.”
Implications of mainnet ZK-proof verification
The technology behind the mainnet verification is BOS’s ZK Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) verification software library, BitSNARK.
According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, BitSNARK enables developers to create “near-trustless bridges” to move Bitcoin (BTC) between the mainnet and layer-2 rollups.
Yago explained the implications of establishing ZK-proofs on the mainnet, stating that a transaction could now represent “many hundreds and thousands of transactions.”
“A single Bitcoin transaction can now be used for transacting privately and for things like smart contracts.”
Bitcoin blockchain turned operating system
Yago explains that ZK’s breakthrough in proving verification on the Bitcoin mainnet aligns closely with the firm’s goal, allowing it to be essentially turned “into an operating system.”
Yago explained that by transforming the Bitcoin mainnet into “more than a transaction system for payments,” it could be used “for decentralized services and activities, like DAOs, DeFi, anything you can imagine.”
Regarding upgradeability, Yago said that “the only way to upgrade Bitcoin is through soft forks and changes to the consensus,” but this is no longer the case.
“It is now possible to introduce any kind of features that you want to Bitcoin, in a permissionless way, [...] to turn what a lot of people thought was a disadvantage, the fact that it was ossifying and the fact that it was very difficult to change, into its main advantage.”
StarkWare secures first testnet verified ZK-proof
On July 17, StarkWare announced the historic milestone of successfully verifying its own ZK-proof on the Bitcoin testnet, Signet.
The development followed three months of “OP_CAT” exploration by the firm, which allowed it to establish its new STARK verifier on the network.
The verifier laid the foundation for ZK-based layer-2 solution development to help improve Bitcoin’s scalability and advance global payment opportunities on the blockchain.