Why does Bitcoin need the Ethereum Virtual Machine to reach its potential?

By Brayden Lindrea, Cointelegraph; Compiled: Pine Snow, Golden Finance

One Web3 executive believes that Bitcoin will only be adopted by the mainstream if it is bridged with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — the first entry point for many real-world assets to move on-chain.

Willem Schroé, founder of cross-chain infrastructure company Botanix Labs, said in an interview that Bitcoin "needs to start working in the EVM world" in order to build real-world use cases and increase its adoption and utility.

"Bitcoin is the most technically secure and truly decentralized protocol, and EVM has proven itself to be the application layer of the global financial system," Schroé said. ”

While bitcoin is often used as a peer-to-peer payment system or store of value, Schroé said that unless the cryptocurrency can be connected to the broader financial system, such as security and commodity markets, its potential will not be realized.

Schroé said connecting Bitcoin with Ethereum-based real-world assets, stablecoins, decentralized finance, and non-fungible tokens through EVM is a first step in that direction.

"It's tremendous value and development and it's waiting to happen."

Staked assets are secured by a decentralized multi-signature mechanism, which is designed not to require a Bitcoin fork.

Schroé believes that current solutions involving Ethereum and other EVM-compatible on-chain packaging bitcoins are problematic and that they are vulnerable to scrutiny and regulatory scrutiny because they are operated by BitGo, a US-based centralized company.

A similar proposal to bring Ethereum functionality to Bitcoin has also been made through the "Drive Chain", also known as Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 300, which is being discussed again by Bitcoin developers. If implemented, it would allow "sidechains" to be built on the network.

On October 9, 2023, Bitcoin developer Robin Linus released a white paper titled "BitVM: Perform Any Computation on Bitcoin," which details how to implement an Ethereum-like optimistic Rollup smart contract on the Bitcoin network.

Unlike Spiderchain, BIP-300 requires Bitcoin to be soft forked and activated by miners – similar to the Taproot soft fork in November 2021, paving the way for NFTs to simulate Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens.

Paul Sztroc, the creator of BIP, said that those who support BIP-300 believe that it will provide new privacy and extended use cases for Bitcoin, among other benefits.

However, not everyone likes the idea of expanding the Bitcoin ecosystem beyond current use cases.

Cory Klippten, CEO of exchange Swan Bitcoin, believes that the drive chain and solution for introducing other assets into Bitcoin will lead to an influx of scammers.

Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard, opposes the idea of issuing altcoins in Bitcoin, arguing that only "good money" is needed.

However, Schroé said he believes that combining Bitcoin and Ethereum could lead to a new set of applications, "with decentralization and security as the first principles."

"EVM is the winning virtual machine, and Bitcoin is the best currency," he said.