Conversation with GOAT Network: The first BitVM2 test network is launched to ignite Bitcoin’s “OP moment”

Guest: GOAT Network

Interview: momo, ChainCatcher

After many rounds of market hot discussion and cold thinking, Bitcoin Layer2 may be entering the "engineering point" from "concept narrative".

Recently, the Bitcoin Layer 2 network GOAT Network released the GOAT BitVM2 test network, which is the first BitVM2 test network to be launched on the entire network.

On the basis of inheriting the advantages of the original BitVM2 protocol, GOAT Network proposed a number of innovations, systematically solving its key issues in security, challenge mechanisms and economic incentives, laying the foundation for the expansion and programmability of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

One of the key breakthroughs is that GOAT Network will affect the challenge period of computing efficiency and coordination costs, shrinking from 14 days to 1 day, greatly improving capital utilization and user experience.

Stephen Duan, a core contributor to GOAT Network, said that Ethereum L2 ushered in an explosion after the Optimistic Rollup model was truly completed, and Bitcoin also needs its own "OP moment". The launch of GOAT BitVM2 test network means that Bitcoin ZK-Rollup has been pushed to actual implementation for the first time, and Bitcoin's "OP moment" is about to be opened.

In a recent interview with ChainCatcher, the GOAT Network team shared in detail their technological breakthroughs, ecological layout and long-term vision.

GOAT said that in addition to further optimizing the GOAT BitVM2 solution, the team is also actively following up with other potential Bitcoin ZK-Rollup solutions and exploring BTCFi products to meet different risk preferences to enrich the on-chain ecosystem. In the future, GOAT Network will gradually move from the core infrastructure in the Bitcoin ecosystem to the liquidity center of blockchain.

GOAT's "anti-mainstream" route

1. ChainCatcher: What is the opportunity to start the GOAT Network?

Stephen Duan: When we realize the profound impact of zkVM on the blockchain industry, especially in the challenge of unifying consensus and liquidity separation, we decided to All in zkMIPS in 2023.

zkMIPS is a zero-knowledge virtual machine based on the MIPS32r2 instruction set developed by the ZKM team. Unlike mainstream RISC-V-based zkVM, it introduces a more mature, simpler and more efficient architectural design that is more suitable for verifiable computing needs.

Compared to the mainstream RISC-V route, choosing MIPS32r2 is a more difficult road, but we believe that this is the only way to build the optimal verifiable computing zkVM.

After determining this technical direction, we need to think about its scenarios and applications. Considering that the Proof Market market needs a strong application ecosystem, we believe that we need to control our future ourselves, rather than relying on the needs of third-party uncertainty to build our own business model.

Therefore, we did not choose the B2B strategy adopted by most zkVM projects, but only serve as the route of an underlying technology service provider. Instead, we integrate from the bottom up, vertically, and choose the scenarios that require ZKP the most to build our zkMIPS use case. GOAT Network - Bitcoin ZK-Rollup came into being.

2. ChainCatcher: It seems that GOAT Network has adopted many "anti-mainstream" routes in strategic choices. What is the value judgment behind it ?

Stephen Duan: Yes, in addition to the aforementioned choice of MIPS based on commercialization considerations, abandoning the uncertain B2B model, and choosing vertical integration, GOAT Network may also appear "alternative" in other aspects.

For example, suspending BD and marketing. We believe that investing in BD and marketing too early before the product matures is irresponsible to partners and may damage the brand due to the unavailability of the product.

In the industry, we generally choose the centralized Sequencer route. We improve the BitVM2 technical solutions and economic models, integrate zkMIPS and decentralized Sequencer, realize the native security of BTC layer 2, and return the second layer profits to contributors.

In addition, we not only follow the technological narrative route, but choose the double helix development of technology and economic models. We believe that technology drives early business, and economic models determine long-term development.

While the industry is notorious about BTCFi, we are also firmly bullish on BTC second-layer and BTCFi, and continue to put aside the noise and strive to promote the real implementation of BTCFi.

Our strategic choice is not a single-point breakthrough, but a systematic layout, hoping to drive technology and economy to form a complete ecological system.

Bitcoin's "OP Moment" is about to start

3. ChainCatcher: Bitcoin Layer2 has indeed been questioned whether it can inherit a layer of security, and most of the existing solutions have not met expectations. What do you think is the general challenge?

Stephen Duan: Just like Ethereum L2 ushered in an explosion after the Optimistic Rollup model was truly completed, Bitcoin also needs its own "OP moment".

Due to the limitations of the Bitcoin scripting language and the high requirements for native security by users, there have always been problems in achieving "truely native" L2 security, which has led to doubts from the community.

Judging from the current actual situation, most Bitcoin’s L2 solutions are indeed sidechain models. Although side chains can expand their functions, their security depends on their own mechanisms and cannot fully inherit the strong security of the Bitcoin main chain.

There are two feasible technical routes: OP_CAT and BitVM2. OP_CAT needs to modify the mainnet script, which touches the bottom line of fundamentalism and is progressing slowly; BitVM2 does not require protocol modification, and it is easier to implement with the OCP model.

But with our breakthrough in BitVM2 technology, we believe that this technical problem will be gradually solved, and Bitcoin’s “OP moment” is about to begin.

4. ChainCatcher: It sounds like BitVM2 is a better choice. BitVM2 was proposed in 2024, but why can't it be implemented for a long time?

Stephen Duan: During the BitVM2 scheme we used, we found that when BitVM2 was used for production-level cross-chain bridges, there were still some key problems:

Operator Double Spend Attack : Currently BitVM2 allows operators to submit verifiable but actually fraudulent status (for example from a forked chain), which may trigger a double spend attack when a user withdraws coins.

Challenge process inefficiency : The existing mechanism adopts a one-to-one (staking, challenge) relationship and the challenge cycle is long, resulting in high computational and coordination costs. At the same time, it does not support flexible withdrawal amounts, reducing capital utilization and user experience.

Lack of effective incentive mechanisms : In the traditional BitVM2 architecture, the Rollup system includes multiple roles, such as Sequencer, Challenger, Operator, and Committee Member. However, the protocol lacks effective incentives to drive the participation of various roles in the Rollup ecosystem, especially the challenger is not rewarded in most cases, resulting in insufficient willingness to launch challenges honestly and in a timely manner. In systems that rely on crowdfunding incentives, there may also be a problem that rewards are assigned to the wrong participants, further weakening the accuracy and effectiveness of incentives.

GOAT BitVM2 is introduced to solve these shortcomings, and it can be said to be an enhanced version of BitVM2. Based on inheriting the advantages of the original BitVM2 protocol, GOAT BitVM2 has made fundamental improvements around three mechanisms , systematically solving its key issues in security, challenge mechanisms and economic incentives.

GOAT BitVM2's technological breakthrough can be said to have promoted BitVM2 from theoretical model to engineering practice. Similar to Ethereum Optimistic Rollup's promotion of L2 explosion, GOAT BitVM2 is expected to accelerate the market implementation of Bitcoin zkRollup and promote the arrival of Bitcoin's "OP moment".

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5. ChainCatcher: Specifically, how does GOAT solve the above problems?

Stephen Duan: On the issue of double-spending attack, we verify the consensus at the second level, and GOAT combines the Bitcoin Light Client mechanism to prevent double-spending.

In order to improve withdrawal efficiency , withdrawals of any amount are achieved through atomic exchange + Operator reimbursement. It basically takes 1-2 weeks to complete the withdrawal in the original agreement, and we can compress the withdrawal of any user to 1 day to complete.

In terms of ZKP efficiency breakthrough , zkMIPS can realize GOAT can realize real-time ZKP generation, ensuring that Operator can immediately start the reimbursement process after each withdrawal is triggered.

After entering the reimbursement stage, based on the multi-round randomized challenge model, the corresponding Challenger is randomly selected for the challenge.

After a limited round of challenges, such as 3-5 rounds of challenges, it is possible to ensure that honest challengers appear with great probability. Each round is completed in 1-2 hours, and the entire process can usually be completed within 1 day.

If someone initiates a challenge, the operator's disclosure of the calculation process and the challenger's Disprove (refutation) the erroneous calculation points of the calculation process. This stage also takes another 30 minutes to 90 minutes to complete.

Since the Operator reimburse itself, the Operator is always online, which ensures the smoothness and timeliness of the entire process.

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6. ChainCatcher: So what improvements have been made in the incentive mechanism?

Stephen Duan: In terms of incentive mechanism, the core innovation of GOAT Network lies in unifying the roles such as Sequencer, Challenger, Operator and Committee member into a single identity - Universal Operator (Author) and through the role rotation mechanism, all participants take turns to assume different responsibilities at different times. All operators are required to be staked on L2 and will be assigned to a specific role in each round.

Under this model, GOAT Network can ensure that operator benefits and costs are balanced, and encourage operators to remain honest in any role; in addition, lower the participation threshold so that small and medium-sized nodes do not need to continue to assume high-cost roles, and can easily participate, improving the degree of decentralization and openness of the system. And enhance system resilience, even if individual operators are disconnected, the system can still maintain operation through flexible role allocation, avoiding dependence on single points.

7. ChainCatcher: What are the common security issues in Bitcoin layer 2 now?

Stephen Duan: The security issue needs to be broken down into three aspects:

First, the activity of L2 itself. In layman's terms, activity refers to whether the L2 system can operate normally and will not stop due to certain node failures or malicious behavior.

The second is the verifiability of L2 calculations and data. If the calculation results of L2 are untrustworthy or cannot be verified on BTC, users may face the risk of funds being tampered with or double spending (same money is spent twice).

The third is effectiveness. If the system is inefficient, has poor user experience, or the incentive mechanism is poor, the nodes may not participate and the system cannot be maintained for a long time.

8. ChainCatcher: What are the advantages of GOAT in solving the above security issues?

Stephen Duan: In terms of activity , GOAT's Sequencer has been decentralized and licenseless since its inception. Anyone can run the Sequencer node and participate in transaction sorting. This means there is no single point of failure, and there is no need to trust a centralized entity. The system can continue to operate and its activity is guaranteed.

In terms of verifiability , GOAT BitVM2 starts with multiple aspects to solve this problem:

Preventing Operator double-spending attacks: In order to realize the state verifiable of L2, the decentralized Sequencer network regularly publishes the Sequencer public key set to the Bitcoin main network, and uses it as the public input of the 2-layer state validity proof (with the help of the Bitcoin Light Client monitoring mechanism), and in the corresponding circuit (the proof of constraining the operator's submission), verifying that the latest block of layer 2 is obtained through consensus based on the public key set, and then further verify that the state transition of the block is correct, thereby completing the final confirmation of the latest state of L2.

Verify the legitimacy of the destruction transaction on the corresponding L2 of the Operator reimbursement: GOAT BitVM2 verifies that the destruction transaction is included in the above block through SPV, and the corresponding destruction status identification is correct.

Replace Peg-out transaction: GOAT BitVM2 replaces the Peg-out transaction in the original protocol with a layer 2 destruction transaction. Operator directly initiates reimbursement, first destroys the Pegged BTC of the second layer, and then initiates reimbursement in Bitcoin L1. This reduces the additional Superblock verification required by Peg-out, making the protocol more secure.

Challenge pledge is provided by the committee : no longer relying on crowdfunding, the reward address is set in advance in the Peg-in stage, ensuring that the challenger can get the reward so that the challenger will not withdraw from the challenge because he cannot get the reward.

In terms of effectiveness , the Operator in GOAT BitVM2 can generate reimbursement certificates in a timely manner based on zkMIPS, and can realize that the time to generate reimbursement certificates of Operator can be controlled to within 40s, greatly improving the capital utilization utility of Operator.

A multi-round random challenge mechanism is proposed, which is a cryptographic lottery scheme, randomly selects challengers among all challengers, and joins the challenger set based on decentralized sequencers, which can reduce the overall reimbursement time to less than 1 day.

9. ChainCatcher: How is the current progress of the BitVM2 solution of GOAT Network? What are the updates worth paying attention to?

Stephen Duan: Our GOAT BitVM2 test network has been launched, and it is the world's first BitVM2 test network to be launched. We are now also recruiting Challenger nodes to help test the system, and anyone can apply to become a Challenger.

Build a BTCFi application ecosystem that meets diverse needs

10. ChainCatcher: GOAT Network recently launched the Bitcoin native DeFi AI Agent "Satoshi GOAT". What is the purpose of his launch? In addition, what are the application scenarios or partners that GOAT has implemented? How do you plan to attract developers to build complex applications such as DeFi on their Layer 2 network in the future?

Stephen Duan: Satoshi GOAT is our attempt to combine BTC products and AI. Through AI Agent combining community education, interaction and games, we hope to promote users’ understanding of GOAT, while also combining education and entertainment. Users can also obtain rewards through interaction and games.

In terms of ecological expansion, GOAT has launched basic DeFi projects such as OKU (Uniswap DAO version), GOATSwap, Avalon, and Artemis, as well as Rarible NFT marketplace, One Play, Growfitter, Go Goat and other games.

For BTCFi products, our idea is to provide different categories of products based on the different risk preferences of BTC currency holders, such as some large institutions and sovereign funds. They have extremely high security requirements for BTC assets and extremely low risk tolerance. We will launch fixed-investment products in a targeted manner to meet their needs.

For users with high risk appetite, we cooperate with Option Market and Perps to serve them.

Our focus will be to guide developers to provide BTCFi products to meet different risk preferences through grants, investment, etc. to enrich the product portfolio on the chain. **
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11. ChainCatcher: When it comes to BTCFi, many community users are actually questioning "Does BTC really need Fi?" What do you think are the current market demand scenarios for BTCFi?

Stephen Duan: We think that when thinking about whether BTC needs Fi, it is best to abandon the macro perspective first, start from the micro, that is, BTC holders, and see what their real needs are.

In order to clarify these needs, we have conducted real research and summarized some user portraits.

For example, mine owners have stepped on mines in BTC custody solutions, cold wallets and other solutions, and the risk tolerance index is 0. They have some BTC income every month, but they also need to pay electricity bills and operating expenses. They do not want to sell BTC. They hope that BTC will generate interest to cover costs, and the assets will be left to future generations.

The mining pool needs to pay operating expenses and shareholder dividends, hoping to make profits through the native income plan, while running the nodes themselves to ensure safety.

The sovereign state fund hopes to convert BTC reserves into real benefits, support the country's cause, and guide national participation.

Hedge Fund/Custodian, finds secure, controllable native revenue solutions for customer-managed BTC.

In addition, in order to quickly improve TVL data, some projects have reached cooperation with various BTC and BTC LST agreements, but these short-term strategies have actually formed hidden liabilities. When these projects are very much in need of hedging debt risks through interest-generating channels and airdrop cooperation mechanisms.

In addition to some of the above B-end players, some ordinary BTC holders also have BTCFi needs. For example, some DeFi players have a lot of BTC or packaged BTC and have been playing DeFi mining. The BTC you hold will not be sold easily, and you also want to find a safe and secure new mining method.

In addition, some "10U" war gods who hold very little BTC are also hoping to make a big fortune through some products? And the novice who knows nothing about wallets and mnemonics. He wants to buy Bitcoin when it is so expensive, but he doesn’t know where to buy it?

These are real needs, but from the data, about 90% of BTC is still idle. Although solving these needs is not achieved overnight, I think in this world, there are only unexplored needs, and there are no unsolved needs.

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12. ChainCatcher: So what are the main challenges the industry is facing in solving various real needs for BTCFi?

Stephen Duan: Although there are challenges, it does not mean that the BTCFi track is not working.

In addition to the BTC native security mentioned above, the real challenge of BTCFi is still the economic model , and we need to think about the source and sustainability of native BTC returns?

We believe that L2, based on native BTC security, is the starting point for the sustainable development of BTCFi. Combined with the ZK Rollup Bridge, BTC can safely and efficiently introduce the second floor for economic activities. The benefits (such as Gas fees) generated by the transaction volume generated by the second tier should be partially returned to BTC holders as a return on liquidity and security.

If the Gas fee on the second layer is denominated in BTC, this constitutes an extremely pure "native BTC income" model. Before this, BTC had almost no real native income scenarios, except for the capital fee rate in CeFi.

The essence of Babylon's model is to harvest third-party tokens, which are not native or sustainable. Going further, to achieve continuous benefits, the operating costs of L2 must be effectively controlled.

In the ZK Rollup solution, Sequencer, Prover, Challenger, Operator, Committee and other roles each assume different responsibilities and the profit structure is also different. How to control the overall cost while ensuring the incentive mechanism will determine whether L2 has sustainable operation capabilities. As we mentioned earlier, GOAT BitVM2’s incentive mechanism innovation, GOAT Network has built a powerful economic system based on general operator rotation to ensure that responsibilities such as sorters, provers, challengers, publishers and other responsibilities are distributed fairly among all stakeholders. Through transaction fee sharing, fraudulent bounty and punishment mechanisms, the agreement encourages honest behavior and also imposes economic punishment on malicious behavior, thus creating a sustainable, fair and flexible decentralized ecosystem.

Committed to becoming a blockchain liquidity center

13. ChainCatcher: Last month, GOAT Network launched the Alpha main network. How effective is the Alpha main network running? Can you share some data or use cases?

Stephen Duan: At present, the Alpha mainnet has been upgraded 3 times steadily, with the number of wallets exceeding 700,000, and has processed nearly 3.4 million transactions.

The community is also growing steadily. The Happy Birthday NFT series launched in April has a total of 2,000 units. Once launched, the floor price has tripled, and the Odyssey activity with OKX Wallet has also begun. **
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In addition, GOAT's pre-market fair launch on the Aspectta BuildKey platform provides members of the GOAT Network community with the first round of on-chain priority participation, and has also received positive responses.

14. ChainCatcher: What is the next technology or product roadmap for GOAT Network? Are there long-term plans for Bitcoin ecosystem expansion and cross-chain interoperability (such as Ethereum and Solana)?

Stephen Duan: Further optimize GOAT BitVM2 to improve the efficiency and security of optimistic challenges. In addition, we are actively following up on other possible BTC zkRollup solutions. For example, after supporting OP_CAT, we can actually directly use BTC scripts to verify STARK Proof, which can transform the current optimistic challenge process into immediate verification.

In terms of cross-chain interoperability. Blockchain interoperability is usually achieved through Trusted Bridge, which relies on an independent centralized or partially decentralized intermediary to verify and deliver cross-chain messages. We are exploring Entangled Rollup, a multi-chain interoperability solution that does not require cross-chain bridges, not only supports interoperability and asset transfer, but also empowers rich multi-chain applications and protocols, allowing it to make full use of underlying infrastructure and ecological resources. **
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15. ChainCatcher: Bitcoin Layer2 cooled down after experiencing a round of market heated discussions last year. What do you think of the next explosion cycle of Bitcoin Layer2? At this stage, do you think as a Bitcoin Layer2 project, you need to do a good job of key points to be able to be long-term competitiveness?

Stephen Duan: The core is to build a healthy BTCFi ecosystem. Technically, we will continue to promote the current continuous optimization of GOAT BitVM2, zkMIPS and De Seq; in the economic model, we will ensure a healthy and continuous incentive model of Universal Operator.

Although investors generally wait and see, we are still firmly bullish on Bitcoin Layer2 and BTCFi, and believe that the era of BTCFi is far from here and the future is promising.

16. ChainCatcher: What is the long-term vision of GOAT Network?

Stephen Duan: GOAT Network's vision is divided into two stages. The first stage is to become the core infrastructure in the Bitcoin ecosystem . Through native Bitcoin ZK-Rollup technology and decentralized Sequencer, it provides Bitcoin holders with sustainable and secure BTC returns, and promotes the full implementation and development of BTCFi.

The second stage is based on the underlying layer of zkVM, unifying the consensus and decentralized liquidity of each chain. GOAT Network will build Entangled Rollup and become the liquidity center of blockchain.