Fractal Bitcoin - Upcoming BTC L2

[altsignalpro]

In my personal opinion Fractal Bitcoin concept is gonna boom in this Bull Rally and you shouldn’t leave this opportunity.

Just shared some of handpicked projects with you in my last thread but at this moment I’m bullish on this upcoming gaming project : -

@vntgrobots - vntgrobots.com

It’s not a promotional thread I genuinely wanna know your thoughts???🟧🟧

[d5000]

I created a thread about layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin, the Sidechain Observer.

I have looked a bit in the so-called "Litepaper" of the Fractal Bitcoin "project". I have to say that this is one of the worst "whitepapers" I've seen, if I'm not missing something.

It doesn't explain anything, only some ominous "virtualization" concept is mentioned. But the big problem, to solve the double spending problem on the Layer-2 (i.e. ensuring that no L2 bitcoin is created without a L1 bitcoin locked), is not even touched in this "Litepaper". Sidechains and layer-2's that "could" work employ complex two-way pegs, and there is no hint how this could be achieved on this "layer".

The website is fractalbitcoin.io, for those who want to risk a look at this. But I'm ... let's say extremely sceptic. It touches many red flags: technobabble, more imagery on the website than text, namedropping (a whitepaper mentioning Satoshi without good reason is often dubious) and "historydropping" (talking a bit too much about Bitcoin's history). And also Ordinals are mentioned like if it was a big innovation, which is also not correct, but many "L2s" like to mention them for no reason, because you don't need a "L2" for off-chain Inscriptions (you can use any altcoin chain actually). See the thread I linked above for examples.

An interesting project related to virtualization on Bitcoin is BitVM but it is currently in pre-alpha state, an updated whitepaper has been published recently.

[Ambatman]

In my personal opinion Fractal Bitcoin concept is gonna boom in this Bull Rally and you shouldn’t leave this opportunity.

I highly doubt
There are better L2 projects with nice white paper and concept that still hasn't seen the light of day.
Not to mention even The most popular lightning network hasn't been able to garner much adoption by the masses.

[buwaytress]

Found a lazy pro & con breakdown of Fractal posted last week: https://x.com/BobBodily/status/1822725495089410302 . Interesting in further comments the label "parasite chain". But I glazed over when I saw the term "fractinals".

P.S. Guy with name "altcoinsignal" makes sole post about some vaguely Bitcoin-inspired alt and says it's not promotional.

[hugeblack]

@vntgrobots - vntgrobots.com

The content of the site is very far from Bitcoin or what you are trying to communicate.
There will be attempts to exploit the potential of Bitcoin sidechains or the Lightning Network but trying to use Bitcoin for anything other than digital payments would be very bad and such projects are unlikely to survive, and there are better centralized alternatives.

[d5000]

Found a lazy pro & con breakdown of Fractal posted last week: https://x.com/BobBodily/status/1822725495089410302 .

This post is actually better than the whitepaper

But in general the project seems to be very similar to most of those I analyzed in the Sidechain observer (which are those on https://l2.watch which already have mainnets). I disagree with the author a bit in that for me the biggest downside is the centralized bridge, not the absence of smart contracts with a turing-complete language. Because wBTC-style bridges with trusted custodians already exist on several chains where you can use them for EVM-compatible (or not) contracts.

Interesting in further comments the label "parasite chain". But I glazed over when I saw the term "fractinals".

I sort of agree with the definition of a "parasite chain" being a chain without a trustless bridge. It seems to have more "parasite characteristics":

- premined, i.e. with big benefits for the founders
- introduces more load to the Bitcoin L1, due to the posted merkle roots.

I stumbled upon the assumption "MPC-based bridging" being the same than "multisig". It seems the big question is though who is part of the federation. In most MPC designs I have seen it seems to be rather similar to the Liquid federation, essentially a static number of custodians who can in some cases vote to introduce a new member. But I'd not rule out a design like Nomic (with a more descentralized approach) could also be done with MPC.

P.S. Guy with name "altcoinsignal" makes sole post about some vaguely Bitcoin-inspired alt and says it's not promotional.

Quite obvious of course

However, I'm personally strongly in support of discussing L2 projects, even if they are very poorly programmed, in the Bitcoin sections, as long as they at least promote to enhance Bitcoin's functionality - if they're a scam, we can lead newbies to the arguments collected in these threads then.

[goldkingcoiner]

There is something about most L2 projects which makes them almost completely unpopular (low user bases). While I like the idea of building on top of Bitcoin in order to improve the Bitcoin ecosystem, many of these sidechains are trying to be their own thing, disconnected from Bitcoin, but still wanting to be a part of the Bitcoin in name only, for marketing purposes... Most of them are just altcoins in disguise and I do not really trust them.

[d5000]

There is something about most L2 projects which makes them almost completely unpopular (low user bases). While I like the idea of building on top of Bitcoin in order to improve the Bitcoin ecosystem, many of these sidechains are trying to be their own thing, disconnected from Bitcoin, but still wanting to be a part of the Bitcoin in name only, for marketing purposes... Most of them are just altcoins in disguise and I do not really trust them.

I completely agree here.

On one hand sidechain-style L2s (i.e. not Lightning-style L2s) always need a different chain and thus "are an altchain" by definition. But there are ways to create such sidechains catering to the Bitcoin core values like censorship resistance and decentralization, and there are "other ways". For example the Drivechain project would have a lot in common with Bitcoin: no premine, pure PoW, probably not even a separate utility token (although I'm not totally sure about that), a focus on decentralization and open source and not on a "team" or "business", and the trust is deposited in the collective of Bitcoin miners.

In contrast, most existing L2 (sidechain) projects have large premines just like "regular" altcoins and even many were distributed via ICO / IEO. They are managed by companies or shady "foundations", and you have to trust them because if you are unlucky they can simply sell everything rugpull-style and run away. Or they can censor you because they control 51% of the PoS ...

[buwaytress]

However, I'm personally strongly in support of discussing L2 projects, even if they are very poorly programmed, in the Bitcoin sections, as long as they at least promote to enhance Bitcoin's functionality - if they're a scam, we can lead newbies to the arguments collected in these threads then.

I was probably a lot more interested years ago with RSK, and while I know there are even more developments now, I've probably settled into a far less adventurous thinking about Bitcoin (with the exception of Lightning). I still believe they should be discussed, there are still solutions needed for money problems (it was an escrow function that first led me to Rootstock).

So I'm with you here. Enhanced functionality in so much as Bitcoin being used as money, will and should always have a place.

[dkbit98]

Yet another Bitcoin Layer two project...and I didn't hear anything about it. 
I have been following many bitcoin layer two projects that are listed on bitcoinlayers.org website, and most of them are worthless crap that won't survive in next few years.
Only layer two project I would consider using is something that is privacy based, and I don't think Fractal has anything to do with privacy, according to their website.