I don't see many people are talking about Bitcoin sidechains as Layer2 solution.
There is one project working on this called Drivechain.
I just started to explore and read more about it, and I see there is some potential here, but I would love to hear what you think about this.
PEER-TO-PEER BITCOIN SIDECHAINS
Drivechain allows Bitcoin to create, delete, send BTC to, and receive BTC from “Layer-2”s called “sidechains”. Sidechains are Altcoins that lack a native “coin” – instead, pre-existing coins [from a different blockchain] must first be sent over.
Once on a sidechain, coins can change hands an unlimited number of times, and in an unlimited number of new ways. Thus, BTC-owners can opt-in to new features or tradeoffs. Meanwhile, the Bitcoiners who don’t opt-in, never need to care what any sidechain is doing.
Transfers from sidechain back to the mainchain (ie, from Layer 2 back to Layer 1) are not done via verifiable proof, but instead via conjecture-and-refutation. A “bundle” of transfers is asserted, and then slowly “ACKed” over time. After 3 months of ACKing, the bundle succeeds. Thus, the SC:BTC market price cannot deviate significantly from a 1:1 ratio.
KEY BENEFITS
Only obtainable via Drivechain:
Three existential threats to BTC are neutralized – altcoin-competition, hard fork campaigns, and extension block campaigns.
BTC development becomes anti-fragile with respect to CoreDev mistakes.
BTC maintains hashrate security in the long run.
BTC can scale to credit-card level txn-processing – without changing the CONOP of Bitcoin Core. These cheap txns have optimal fungibility and supply vital pretext to the BTC ecosystem.
BTC gains new, experimental abilities, especially P2P event derivatives.
MAIN BENEFITS
Permissionless Innovation: Anyone can create a new blockchain project, without facing the (near-impossible) task of also bootstrapping a new unit of money.
Eliminates Competition: Bitcoin will always have the best code, because it can copy any code that exists.
Freedom to Choose: Satoshi’s consensus protocol requires everyone to agree on everything, down to the very last byte. Sidechains allow users to choose which benefits they would like to pay for.
OTHER BENEFITS
Anti-Scam: SCs filter out get-rich-quick schemes (the ‘get rich’ part is now impossible). Therefore, good projects can stand out and receive our attention.
Faster Progress: SCs let us test new features. The tests are safe – if these features fail, they won’t take down the main network. However, the tests are also informative – real BTC is on the line.
website:
https://www.drivechain.info/Github;
https://github.com/drivechain-project
