Bitcoin (BTC) users can now efficiently mint new assets on the blockchain through an updated edition of the Taproot Assets Protocol, recently released by Lightning Labs. According to the infrastructure firm, the current methods of inscribing assets on the Bitcoin blockchain are particularly inefficient, with cumbersome protocols writing asset metadata directly into block space. The new protocol is designed to operate maximally off-chain to avoid network congestion. Protocols users will soon be able to integrate BRC-20 assets into the Lightning Network, with wallets, exchanges, and merchants being ported over, instead of needing to bootstrap a new ecosystem from scratch.
Today we’re excited to announce the newest version of Taproot Assets , a scalable protocol to issue assets on #bitcoin and Lightning.
With this release, developers have the core set of features to bitcoinize the dollar in a chain-efficient manner! ⛓️https://t.co/7WmeDjNnM2
— Lightning Labs⚡️ (@lightning) May 16, 2023
The Taproot Assets Protocol provides a better solution for minting new assets on Bitcoin than pre-existing methods like JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). This is because it enables users to easily transfer to the Lightning network for fast and cheap transactions. The overwhelming majority of BRC-20 tokens created thus far have utilized Ordinal inscriptions of JSON data to deploy token contracts, mint tokens and transfer them. However, this method has drawn widespread criticism from developers, who claim it costs four times as much in transaction fees compared to just using binary.
The Taproot Assets Protocol is the rebranded version of the original Taro protocol. Lightning Labs changed the name of the software due to a frivolous trademark infringement suit by blockchain development firm Tari Labs last year.
The total value of BRC-20 tokens briefly surpassed the $1 billion mark on May 9th but has since shrunk to $500 million, a drop of nearly 50%.
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