The "Fog" and "Lighthouse" of Bitcoin L2, the path selection of GOAT Network and industry baseline.

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

Since 2024, Bitcoin Layer 2 has almost become a generalized label in the cryptocurrency market. From sidechains to Rollups, from state channels to EVM-compatible systems, numerous projects claim to be Bitcoin L2, competing for narrative dominance in a vacuum of discourse. However, when everyone can call themselves Layer 2, a more fundamental question begins to emerge: what does the Bitcoin ecosystem really need?

The development of Bitcoin L2 does not require more stories, but rather engineering solutions that are verifiable, executable, have clear standards, and sustainable economic models. The GOAT Network is gradually establishing its technical positioning in this context. It has not chosen the path of issuing tokens for hype, nor does it rely on abstract concepts to package technology, but instead proposes a set of executable and verifiable execution solutions centered around the engineering implementation of BitVM2, along with an economic brown paper and industry benchmark standards, attempting to reshape a credible path for Bitcoin L2.

Origin and Motivation: The “Chronic Illness” of BTC L2 and the Choice of the “Breaker”

BTCFi has been caught between technological ideals and real-world bottlenecks for many years. Its fundamental dilemma can be summarized as a typical triangular paradox: security must align with the consensus mechanism of the Bitcoin mainnet, functionality requires support for scalability and intelligence, but all of this must be established without sacrificing the essence of decentralization. More troublesome is that the native BTC asset has lacked a stable yield path to date, having long relied on the funding rates of centralized platforms or incentives from other chain tokens, making it difficult to build a sustainable financial ecosystem. This series of structural defects has led many Bitcoin L2 projects to ultimately fall into the awkward paths of pseudo-bridging, centralized custody, or even reliance on Ethereum's cross-chain infrastructure, being unclear technically and difficult to reconcile commercially.

The GOAT Network chose a vertical strategy from the very beginning, emphasizing landing first and technology verification. In terms of hardware architecture, it abandoned the immature RISC-V and adopted the MIPS architecture with stronger industrial stability, combined with a series of circuit optimizations to construct the Ziren( original zkMIPS), establishing an efficient on-chain computing environment. In system design, by combining BitVM2 with a decentralized Sequencer architecture, it builds a non-custodial, on-chain verifiable execution path, achieving an on-chain adjudication mechanism with traceable states and verifiable data.

On the strategic path, GOAT does not rely on the B2B model or project co-branding for its fate, but instead focuses on Bitcoin zkVM as the main axis to build the most authentic zk scenario use cases from the ground up. While most so-called L2 projects are still spinning in the narrative quagmire, GOAT has already transformed Bitcoin L2 from a conceptual narrative into a sustainable real solution.

The evolution and engineering implementation of BitVM2

The architecture proposed by GOAT BitVM2 is a key step for Bitcoin scaling technology from theoretical feasibility to engineering practicality. Compared to the earlier BitVM v1's concept of logic gate simulation and fraud proofs, GOAT's version achieves a system reconstruction in security mechanisms, challenge efficiency, and execution economics, bringing Bitcoin's native zkRollup to practical usability for the first time. GOAT BitVM2 reduces the challenge period from the original 14 days to less than 1 day, and its architecture combines zkMIPS zero-knowledge proof, decentralized sorters, and a multi-round challenge reward mechanism to build a complete Bitcoin native ZK Rollup solution. Specifically, its core breakthroughs are reflected in three aspects:

In terms of security, propose an L2 validator set commitment mechanism to achieve consensus verification at the L2 layer, addressing the Operator double-spending attack issue.

In terms of efficiency, the reimbursement process simplified by L2, based on the zkMIPS real-time proof network, improves the reimbursement efficiency for Operators.

In terms of incentives, the Universal Operator plan is proposed, which implements role randomization based on cryptographic lotteries to build a systematic incentive mechanism, ensuring that the interests of all parties involved (Sequencer, Operator, and Challenger) are balanced.

Currently, the GOAT BitVM2 testnet has been launched, and the demonstration of Ziren's off-chain computation + mainnet challenge simulation has been completed. In the test environment, the system supports zkRollup execution paths based on native BTC inputs, verifying that L2 execution results can achieve on-chain deterministic adjudication without the need for trust, laying the engineering foundation for the comprehensive deployment of BTC L2 applications in the future.

At the same time, GOAT Network is actively promoting innovative explorations of BitVM3. As a member of the BitVM Alliance, GOAT Network primarily focuses on the scheme of verifiable obfuscated circuits combining DV-SNARK and NIZK, and has taken the lead in completing prototype implementation and testing. Through this breakthrough, the efficiency of on-chain challenges has achieved an improvement of over 1000 times, reducing the challenge cost to 1/1000 of the original model.

GOAT Network will continue to collaborate with ecological partners to promote the engineering and large-scale application of BTC Layer 2 technology, accelerating the functional expansion and value release of the Bitcoin network.

Economic model and “revenue closed loop”

In all explorations regarding the financialization of Bitcoin, while the technical architecture is undoubtedly important, what truly determines whether Bitcoin L2 projects can achieve long-term sustainability is whether their economic models possess self-consistency and closed-loop characteristics. The “Bitcoin zkRollup Economic Brown Paper 2.0” released by GOAT Network revolves around this core issue. Its intention is not to construct a narrative space for empty incentives but to systematically establish an incentive structure centered around the native security and usage behaviors of BTC, so that L2 no longer relies on centralized bridging, false liquidity, or third-party token infusions, but instead can create, distribute, and continuously release benefits based on genuine network usage and the behaviors of system participants.

In the first version of the previously released “Economic Beige Book”, based on earning interest by staking BTC, GOAT further proposed a dual Token model, where pBTC represents the locked principal, allowing users to redeem it at any time to ensure that asset sovereignty is not lost; yBTC serves as the system's native yield certificate, representing the net value returns generated by real economic activities on the chain. Whether it is transaction fees, sorting rights earnings, or challenger rewards, all are distributed in the form of yBTC. This design effectively separates yields from principal, eliminating the need to forcibly attract liquidity with high APY as bait, and instead allows yields to become a natural byproduct of usage, forming a clear and traceable yield loop.

Compared to other L2 solutions that rely on cross-chain bridges or ERC20 wrapped assets, the native yield path constructed by GOAT is more robust in engineering. Thanks to the combination of BitVM2 and zkVM architecture, BTC can enter the L2 execution environment in a non-custodial manner and participate in the complete transaction and application lifecycle through off-chain execution and on-chain verification mechanisms. What is published on-chain is merely the state commitment and the verification logic of the computational results, with the entire process requiring no third-party token intermediaries and no reliance on centralized gateways, thereby truly achieving the architectural goal of not compromising BTC mainnet control and L2 composability.

Building on the operational mechanism, GOAT further proposes the concept of a modular economic layer, which not only complements the current incentive logic of the three types of roles but also anticipates the cross-protocol resource coordination capabilities in a future multi-application parallel ecosystem. As more DeFi, RWA, or payment scenarios are integrated, developers will be allowed to define their own profit distribution mechanisms, construct internal liquidity feedback models, and use yBTC as a unified measurement coordinate, enabling the combination and collaboration of incentive logic across different scenarios. Ultimately, this economic layer will evolve into a collaborative financial foundation on top of Bitcoin L2.

As Kevin Liu, a core contributor of GOAT Network, said, the real BTCFi has never begun, and its true start must be based on a dual closed loop of native security and native yield.

If the “Economic Brown Paper 2.0” paints a self-consistent revenue loop for the GOAT Network, then it is the products and ecological matrix launched around BTCFi that truly brings this logic into reality. The value of Bitcoin's native Layer 2 should not remain in theory and narrative, but should provide token holders with a truly usable, sustainable, and non-custodial revenue entry.

GOAT Network has officially launched a complete set of BTCFi yield products, providing diverse options for users with different risk preferences. GOAT Safebox serves as a zero-risk option, allowing users to participate in decentralized sequencer incentives through a three-month BTC lock-up, earning approximately 2% on-chain yield, especially suitable for institutional investors; the BTCB/DOGEB Vault achieves a 5% annualized return through cross-chain bridging and gas fee backflow, targeting conservative users; while Sequencer PoS Staking opens up a medium-risk path, based on a multi-coin PoS and decentralized sequencer network, offering staking with an annualized return of up to 10%; in addition, the Avalon lending market enables flexible borrowing and liquidity allocation for BTC and BTC LST on layer two, truly bringing Bitcoin into DeFi-level capital efficiency scenarios.

Nowadays, the ecological landscape of the GOAT Network has taken shape, covering multiple areas such as DeFi, infrastructure tools, cross-chain bridges, NFTs, games, and sorting nodes, attracting developers, users, institutions, and communities to participate together. As the ecosystem continues to expand, the GOAT Network is evolving into a financial operating system that features sustainable returns, open collaboration, and diverse innovation.

From “saying to doing” to “industry baseline”

If the technology and economic model are the proof of concept for the first phase of the GOAT Network, then the release of the “Native Layer 2 Network Benchmark Proposal for Bitcoin” represents its beginning to undertake a higher level of ecological responsibility, aiming to delineate clear boundaries for the chaotic Bitcoin L2 concept. In the face of numerous projects in the market that are labeled as L2 but actually rely on federated multisig or external trust mechanisms, GOAT hopes to establish a set of criteria based on the spirit of Bitcoin to define the standards for native layer 2 networks.

The proposal is divided into two parts: “Core Essentials” and “Optional Enhancements,” emphasizing frequent anchoring to the Bitcoin mainnet, on-chain dispute resolution, permissionless forced exit, a trust-minimized bridging structure, and the system's continued availability under attack or downtime. The standard is technology-neutral and does not favor any specific architecture; as long as these principles are met, it can be regarded as a Bitcoin-native L2.

Unlike most protocols that set their own standards, GOAT takes this as a starting point for industry co-construction, emphasizing the openness and neutrality of standards. This is not only an extension of its engineering philosophy but also a clarification of the Bitcoin L2 concept in the current environment of semantic confusion.

The GOAT Network has implemented the first real-time proving system operating in a production environment, becoming the first Bitcoin zkRollup project to support instant withdrawal initiation and full-chain visualization proof.

GOAT Network stated that all peg-out operations have been digitized, visualized, and verifiable on-chain, and are presented in real-time through a public UI page. The current system is fully open-source, does not rely on trust assumptions, and has built a complete closed-loop from BTC deposit, on-chain interaction to withdrawal. The project team believes that this capability will redefine the technical standards of Bitcoin zkRollup and lay the foundation for the practical usability of BTCFi.

After the completion of technological implementation and the establishment of industry baselines, GOAT Network has not limited its focus to engineering breakthroughs, but instead further shifted its emphasis to community building. In their view, the vitality of a decentralized network does not only come from the security of the code and the feasibility of the model, but also depends on whether it can form a sufficiently open and active community ecosystem.

GOAT has launched a multi-dimensional layout at the community level. Through the One Piece program, users can engage in social interactions, cross-chain activities, trading, mini-games, and more at zero or low cost, and exchange points for token airdrops, becoming a major distribution channel for the early ecosystem. Unlike most projects that rely on airdrop hype, One Piece emphasizes long-term participation and diverse interactions. In August, GOAT Network announced the launch of the GOAT Vanguard Ambassador Program, recruiting Bitcoin pioneers, high-quality content creators, and like-minded community leaders from around the world to jointly lead the BTCFi narrative and promote the implementation of the Bitcoin L2 ecosystem and BTC native yield innovations. In addition, the project has cumulatively purchased 34 BTC and officially launched it as the Ecosystem Pilot Fund, directly demonstrating its intention to incentivize the Bitcoin ecosystem using Bitcoin itself. Together, these elements form another main avenue beyond GOAT's technology, making Bitcoin native Layer2 a social experiment constructed and benefited by global users.

The next step for Bitcoin L2 is “ordering”.

The expansion route of Bitcoin is at a turning point. GOAT is attempting to become a “pioneer” in this field with its systematic layout in technology implementation, economic model construction, and industry standard formulation. What is a truly native second layer of Bitcoin? How can we establish a trustless execution path? How can we build a sustainable native BTC yield mechanism?

When the concepts fade, and the buzzwords quiet down, what remains will be those systematic solutions that possess standards, verifiability, and sustainability. What GOAT has built is not just a set of L2 products, but a foundational rule set for the entire Bitcoin scaling ecosystem. It establishes order through engineering actions, laying the groundwork for the next phase of Bitcoin L2 and reshaping trust.