PATX, an inscription on a BRC-20, was hot recently, with 16 BTC trading volume completed in 48 hours. This article explores what kind of project is the BTC Layer2 protocol-Path Protocol, which the PATX community aims to promote.
The surge in interest towards inscriptions has put the development of Bitcoin’s Layer 2 technology under close scrutiny within the industry. Despite Bitcoin’s renown for security and decentralization, its capacity to handle a large volume of transactions is limited by its transaction speed. This challenge has spurred the need for Layer 2 solutions. Among them, the PATH Protocol may plays a pivotal role in this transformation, driving the Bitcoin ecosystem towards a more mature and diversified direction.
The PATH Protocol is a Layer 2 unlimited expansion solution based entirely on Bitcoin consensus. Let’s delve into PATH from three dimensions.
Decentralized Cross-chain
As the core driving force for BTC to build Web3, native assets on the BTC chain, including BTC, will be the core. BRC-20 proves it. Enabling these assets to have better payment and transaction experiences, and even interact with more complex applications, will be a priority.
The PATH Protocol implements cross-chaining through a hybrid system involving both relay and notary mechanisms. The states of other blockchain systems are accessible to the PATH protocol through relays, allowing PATH network applications to freely query the status of other blockchain systems. Cross-chain instructions from the PATH protocol are issued to other blockchain systems in the form of notarization. The cross-chain component, preceding the launch of the PATH protocol network, must first implement the notary mechanism to facilitate subsequent migration. Decentralized fair mechanisms are achieved through KYC of founding nodes, committee node asset pledging, formation of temporary committees via VRF algorithms, and multi-signature for supervising and reporting malicious nodes, ensuring fairness and security.
Scalability
Nodes within the PATH Protocol’s decentralized network maintain ledger data and interact with each other based on standard rules. These nodes operate independently within the network environment, exchanging information and forming a scalable, efficient, and immutable decentralized infrastructure.
The PATH Protocol ultimately proposes a decentralized public ledger protocol, PATH, which can expand performance, throughput, and storage capacity while ensuring security. To achieve high throughput and low latency, the ledger decouples transactions, splitting them into initiating and receiving parts, created by different accounts. Since the creation of different account blocks does not affect each other, this model achieves tremendous elasticity in storage and throughput after introducing the settlement state of blocks. Unlike Nano’s account model, PATH Protocol supports diverse assets and uses the Merkle tree of accounts to support Key-Value storage data.
In addition to smart contract applications, PATH’s decentralized applications have more flexible and higher-level definitions. Beyond complex decentralized applications, it includes oracle, authoritative nodes, and cross-chain methods. The high throughput and low latency system architecture of PATH brings the experience of decentralized applications closer to that of centralized applications.
PATH Protocol supports Turing-complete smart contracts, is decentralized, EVM compatible, high-performance, highly scalable, and compatible with the Lightning Network.
First Layer 2 Subchain to Achieve Expansion
PATH is soon to launch its first Layer 2 chain based on the PATH framework, to meet the requirements of running smart contracts and high scalability. This is crucial for building a practical application platform, primarily achieved through the following technologies for enhancing the chain’s underlying architecture.
The PATH-Random consensus mechanism combines PBFT theory and VRF algorithm, a consensus mechanism that balances fairness and efficiency.
It adopts the Plasma blockchain expansion calculation method, where numerous blockchains form a tree structure to participate in computation, realizing horizontal expansion of the blockchain.
A more powerful virtual machine is used, not only compatible with EVM but also sufficiently expandable, and it must have underlying instructions to meet performance needs.
About PATH Protocol
PATH Protocol is a Layer 2 unlimited solution entirely based on Bitcoin consensus. Based on the Depin/POW consensus mechanism’s UTXO model, it completely resolves expansion issues on top of the UTXO model’s high concurrency advantages. Supporting Turing-complete smart contracts, it’s fully compatible with mainstream EVM systems and supports one-click migration deployment of mainstream DAPPs. PATH aims to become the cornerstone infrastructure of the BTC network’s Web3 ecosystem.
According to the official PATH Protocol twitter, it is possible that community members holding PATX inscriptions will be airdropped, believing that the inscription will have a more significant market performance in the future.
PATH Protocol
Website: https://www.pathbtc.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PATH_Protocol