Advancing Bitcoin

Had the opportunity to play with an early version of Ark today, a promising #Bitcoin L2 introduced by @brqgoo last year 🧵A few key insights from @stevenroose3 workshop at Advancing Bitcoin: 1️⃣ Out-of-rounds ("Arkoor") transactions are an interesting workaround that allows people to co-sign a new VTXO with an Ark Service Provider (ASP) without waiting for a new round, it's instant and more cost effective. This also drastically reduces the liquidity requirements of ASPs which is arguably the biggest challenge for Ark. 2️⃣ Unilateral Exits (what makes a real L2) are a two stage process. You first have to trigger an exit transaction and wait for a relative timelock to expire. Cool to see in person on Signet and hugely important for decentralization (this is useful in case your ASP goes offline or censors you). 3️⃣ Ark looks a lot more "Real" now than when it was announced a year ago. A lot of progress has been made but several challenges remain (TLDR we need covenants). A version of Ark less covenants exist today ("clArk") but using pre-signed transaction makes everything more complex. ➡️ Overall I feel very excited about the prospect of Ark providing an alternative to the Lightning Network, while also being interoperable with LN⚡. The name of the game for BTC L2s is going to be capital management, and LN will play the central role of the liquidity interchange. #Bitcoin is scaling FAST 🚀