The 15th Pizza Festival, an overview of the Bitcoin ecosystem

15 years ago, 10,000 Bitcoins were traded for two pizzas as a joke. 15 years later, Bitcoin has reached a new historical high, but OKX Wallet announced it will stop supporting Runes.

The debate between Bitcoin and BTCFi has never ceased. With the stablecoin legislation established, Satoshi Nakamoto's great vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash from back in the day is now being seized by governments, central banks, and traditional financial giants.

What is the future of the Bitcoin ecosystem? Let's dig deeper!

Indeed, 15 years later, there have emerged richer ecosystems surrounding Bitcoin, with 429 applications in the Rootdata Bitcoin ecosystem map, ranking in the top 10. Infra, Layer 1, Layer 2, NFTs, Ordinals, Runes, and various applications around PayFi and DeFi have emerged in abundance, and with the momentum provided by capital, they have once become a major narrative.

When the tide goes out, you can see who is swimming naked and who is working seriously.

Is BTCFi dead?

Many people raise this question, and it should be more accurately understood as has the Bitcoin staking track died? According to users' understanding, if large-scale counter-currents and market capitalization/prices are sluggish, then it is indeed dead. However, we also need to see it from another perspective, that is, from the project side, are they making money? Are they still building? If we look at it this way, it gets interesting.

Babylon gradually went silent after the last subsidy user Gas was credited, but did not stop building. The second phase of the mainnet went live on May 9, and on May 16, a single transfer of 10,000 Bitcoins was made to Babylon phase-2, providing punishable security, with a total staking of 50,000 Bitcoins, equivalent to a TVL of $5 billion.

In addition, recently B² and Merin have both entered the coin market Alpha. You read that right, it's Merin, and they haven't been idle, continuously working quietly. Lorenzo has launched the coin market wallet IDO and contract, and the new narrative of "on-chain investment banks" is already showing results. Lombard has recently collaborated with Pendle and Aave to enhance Bitcoin asset liquidity; Nubit showcased the Bitcoin Thunderbolt protocol at FBC' 25; Sol continues to expand its on-chain micro-strategy landscape, supporting Chainlink CCIP on Solana.

Not everyone is working hard; a certain project that starts with B has only updated 2 posts on Chinese Twitter since May, one of which was about a pizza festival lottery.

Still remember the inscriptions and runes Ordinals?

OKX Wallet has chosen to no longer support Runes, which is understandable, after all, this is a product aimed at the general public, and the BTC ecosystem has now faded from the mainstream, returning to its original starting point.

Most of the creativity in this part is related to OP_Return. This round of upgrades for Bitcoin has also turned some assets into real antiques. Bitcoin keeps hitting new highs, but the assets surrounding Bitcoin have gone in the opposite direction. Is this reasonable? Every project has its own grievances.

Unisat's Bitcoin Mysterious Garden

If we talk about true love, Unisat's love for Bitcoin and the Bitcoin ecosystem is absolutely genuine, and I believe that peers, capital, and users will not dispute this. This team is committed to Bitcoin, and although there are mixed opinions, everyone acknowledges that when it comes to the Bitcoin ecosystem, Unisat cannot be ignored.

Let's first take a look at what flowers Unisat has planted on the Bitcoin land:

UniSat Wallet

A wallet that supports Ordinals, Runes, BRC-20, and rare Satoshis, with multiple terminal products to meet mainstream asset management needs.

UniScan

The browser is an essential entry infrastructure for blockchain and ecological protocols. Uniscan can provide comprehensive data services for ecological projects and users, while ensuring the consistency of various data structures, such as BTC and Fractal addresses. If a new protocol is added, Uniscan can also be compatible and integrated, maintaining data consistency for complex protocols under the same address.

UniSat Marketplace

A BRC-20 asset trading platform based on PSBT, which became a mainstream inscription market after its launch in April 2023, and has integrated wallets to become an all-in-one product for issuance, new offerings, trading, and fundraising.

PizzaSwap

PizzaSwap has been upgraded from BRC-20, and the new brand marks that it is no longer limited to BRC-20 assets, but is aimed at the entire Bitcoin ecosystem. PizzaSwap began to test and deploy on Fractal to complete the productization, and the domain name was upgraded to an independent domain name and developed independently. How do I get from Fractal to Mainnet? The answer is open cooperation, PizzaSwap will cooperate with OKX Wallet and L1 F to break through the protocol limits, embrace the mainnet, and support more decentralized trading of new assets in the future.

Supports Fractal Bitcoin (FB)

UniSat is the core driver of Fractal Bitcoin, supporting the construction of the Fractal ecosystem by providing infrastructure support (such as BRC-20 index open source, Runes activation).

Alkanes Protocol

This is a new star protocol on Bitcoin Layer 1, simply put, it adds a smart contract "plugin" to BTC. Code is written in Rust, compiled into WebAssembly (WASM), compressed and directly inserted into the Bitcoin blockchain. With the Metashrew indexer, the on-chain status is clear at a glance, safe and transparent! Supported by smart contracts, this is a must-watch and absolutely a significant event for the future.

This seems to have already been mined out, and the UniSat-related infrastructure may gradually support Alkanes. Wallets and browsers will lead the way, while minting and market functions may follow suit gradually. The Swap module will also achieve compatibility in the future.

Last year, UniSat collaborated with Layer 1 Foundation to promote the upgrade of the BRC-20 standard, aiming to achieve a fully decentralized AMM mechanism, similar to the trading experience of Uniswap. In addition, UniSat enhanced the interoperability of assets through PizzaSwap and cross-chain bridges, laying the foundation for the DeFi scenarios of the BTC ecosystem.

It can be said that these are essential infrastructure for the ecosystem! Many people may criticize, "Unisat, why do you do everything?" I’ll speak fairly, there’s no way, buddy, no one is building the infrastructure, and those who do don’t maintain it well, just stop when they want… Isn’t it necessary to grind your teeth and do it yourself? Everyone is focused on issuing coins, my friend, issuing coins also requires wallets, protocols, chains, DEX, etc. If you don’t do these things well, are users supposed to use code to manage their assets?

Bitcoin Revival's Heavy Hammer

Among these, I think the most challenging and also the most promising are Fractal Bitcoin and PizzaSwap.

Fractal Bitcoin

This is a Bitcoin expansion solution developed by the UniSat team, based on the Bitcoin core code, fully compatible with existing Bitcoin wallets, tools, and mining equipment. Its uniqueness lies in expanding itself through Bitcoin itself, using fractal design to enhance network performance while preserving the security and decentralization characteristics of Bitcoin.

It is worth mentioning that Fractal Bitcoin has gained support from over 90% of the total network hash power, particularly with the inclusion of Foundry, the largest compliant mining pool in the United States. Through the innovative Cadence Mining model, Fractal is able to share Bitcoin's hash power resources, further enhancing the network's security and stability.

As a foundational protocol, Fractal Bitcoin uses the FB protocol to shorten block confirmation times from 10 minutes to 30 seconds, supporting various protocols such as BRC-20 and Runes, significantly enhancing transaction efficiency. Currently, Fractal Bitcoin has been launched for nearly a year, and its TPS remains stable at around 170, far exceeding the 7-10 TPS of the Bitcoin mainnet, indicating high protocol activity, with transactions being cheaper, faster, and more efficient.

What are users doing?

According to OKX and Fractal browser, the main active behaviors are inscription minting, trading, DeFi's swap and liquidity management, as well as $FB transfers.

Is Fractal a Layer 2? It's quite controversial. Amidst the debate, modular solutions can indeed optimize the BRC-20 protocol, save block space, and build sustainable incentive models. Let's learn by doing.

PizzaSwap

This is the decentralized exchange launched by UniSat on Fractal Bitcoin, providing an efficient and native trading platform for Bitcoin mainnet and assets in the Fractal ecosystem.

How is this AMM implemented?

PizzaSwap achieves a fully decentralized trading logic by locking, not transferring, mainnet assets and Fractal assets in a module. Bool Bridge and SimpleBridge can also facilitate cross-chain transactions between mainnet and Fractal assets.

Will PizzaSwap quickly support the Alkane protocol? I think it definitely will, and it won't be too late. In contrast, Oyl also supports it, but its compatibility with Runes and other BRC-20 assets is a bit weaker. DotSwap can support it as well, but the experience is slightly lacking, and the centralized risk has not been alarmed.

On one side is the great leap forward in the application layer—production, issuing coins, transforming, or playing dead; on the other side is the slow innovation in underlying infrastructure and protocols. Some choose to take a hidden route, while others choose to work hard to make up for their shortcomings, both are fine, it depends on what you like. I have always maintained my love for Bitcoin and the Bitcoin ecosystem, willing to take another look and support it a little more, after all, such niche and pure things will become less and less in the future.