[Discussion] Taro: A new protocol for multi-asset Bitcoin and Lightning

[fillippone]

Lightning Labs rebranded their first product rgb TARO as Taproot Assets, and today they are launching their first mainnet alpha.
 
Taproot assets is a protocol for issuing assets on the Bitcoin blockchain that can be transferred leveraging the Lightning network.

The protocol is described here:
Taproot Assets

Taproot Assets (formerly Taro) is a new Taproot-powered protocol for issuing assets on the bitcoin blockchain that can be transferred over the Lightning Network for instant, high volume, low fee transactions. At its core, Taproot Assets taps into the security and stability of the Bitcoin network and the speed, scalability, and low fees of Lightning.

For a brief explanation of the protocol, here there are the FAQ.

Today Lightning Labs released their first main net alpha of the product: Taproot Assets v 0.3 where developers and tester can start playing with financial assets issued on chain!

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[cygan]

✂️
Today Lightning Labs released their first main net alpha of the product: Taproot Assets v 0.3 where developers and tester can start playing with financial assets issued on chain!

for this release, there is also a very detailed article that also shows why TA provides builders with all the tools needed to make bitcoin a multi-asset network, but in a scalable manner that maintains bitcoin's core values
https://lightning.engineering/posts/2023-10-18-taproot-assets-v0.3/

[d5000]

Thank you for linking the news

I think NostrAssets (mentioned in one of the articles) is quite an interesting approach. I've not looked at it in detail, but it seems to combine the Nostr communication protocol (which is used for messaging and similar communication activity, it has also a protocol extension for marketplaces) and Taproot Assets for DeFi-Lightning applications. There seems to be no whitepaper however, so investigating its inner workings could be a bit bothersome ...

There could be interesting synergies as Nostr uses the same kind of cryptography as Bitcoin (and thus, TA and Lightning) does. For example, I could imagine temporary addresses being used as identification in the Nostr network but only valid for one payment to maximize privacy when trading TA assets. (I'm willing to overlook that the NostrAssets team seems to come originally from the BRC-20 bubble )

[fillippone]

An exciting, yet puzzling news caught my attention the other day:

Paolo Ardoino sees RGB as 'best opportunity' to issue stablecoins on Bitcoi

tl;dr

Quick Take

• Paolo Ardoino called the RGB protocol the “best opportunity” for issuing stablecoins on Bitcoin.
• Ardoino said RGB is the “rightful successor” to Omni for Tether’s USDT stablecoin issuance.

Why RGB?
We know that Taproot Assets is a copycat of RGB, but we also know that it has better documentation and probably a better team. He was referring to RGB as the protocol per se or RGB as "Asstet transfer protocol on BTC L2?" opening the competitive race between RGB and TARO?

[fillippone]

I find it's unsettling to see 2 similar protocol compete, especially when Taproot Asset is based on RGB. If people behind Taproot join RGB or vice versa, we could see faster/more efficient development.

As I understand, Ardoino is a fan of L2 solution, actually both of them:

The Block released an interview with the Tether CEO:
Bitfinex's Ardoino expects 'quantum leap' in Bitcoin scaling solution adoption

However, he also appears to be a fan of Taproot Assets — which aims to transform Bitcoin into a scalable multi-asset network without compromising its core tenets — calling it "the future we deserve."

In this interview so he clarifies he is confident in the L2 scaling solutions, and open to the best protocol emerging from the competing one (TaAs and RGB) or even new ones that could emerge).