The Path to Hyperbitcoinization Runs Through Capital Markets
Alex B., 6/2/2025, 4 engagements
Alex B.
8915 sats received
The future of Bitcoin as programmable money starts today.
2 years after the introduction of the Ark protocol, Arkade launches on Bitcoin mainnet in public beta.
The era of bridges and wrapped assets is over.
Build applications on the world's most secure blockchain, at scale.
Try it today arkade.money!
10/21/2025, 55 engagements
Say goodbye to expiry headaches in Ark-based protocols!
Today we're introducing our new Delegation system as well as the Arkade Intent framework.
A major UX boost for our Arkade implementation.
Details in link
https://blog.arklabs.xyz/adios-expiry-rethinking-liveness-and-liquidity-in-arkade/
7/16/2025, 4 engagements
Some expanded thoughts on our vision for programmable money and the importance of capital markets as a bridge to Bitcoin's mainstream monetary role.
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6/2/2025, 4 engagements
After a year inside the Ark protocol, the rabbit hole got way deeper.
What started with basic Bitcoin payments and batching has evolved into something much bigger: a complete execution layer.
Today we're announcing the next chapter: Arkade
Our journey began implementing Ark's core primitives: VTXOs, presigned transaction trees, and batch settlements.
Months of production code revealed to us these weren't just payment optimizations, they were the building blocks for something far more ambitious.
That realization changed everything.
We're unveiling Arkade: a virtual execution layer that transforms these primitives into programmable money while preserving Ark's security guarantees.
This announcement is also an opportunity for us to share our implementation journey.
Everything we've built developing Arkade is now open source.
Follow our evolution through code, research, and real implementation work:
🔧 Arkade Compiler (experimental Ivy meets CashScript) h/t @danrobinson
Arkade Language lets you write Bitcoin-native smart contracts in a high-level syntax, compiling to Arkade Script for fast, secure, offchain execution.
github.com/arkade-os/compiler
📱 Arkade Mobile Wallet (PassKey auth, no app store required)
A progressive web app with modern authentication and VTXO management built-in.
Arkade in your pocket
This is how Bitcoin wallets should work in 2025. github.com/arkade-os/wallet
⚙️ Custom Script Interpreter
Conceptual implementation showing how enhanced scripting fits natively in our existing Ark infrastructure.
Features 30+ new opcodes including OP_CAT, introspection, and arithmetics, all VTXOs compatible
github.com/arkade-os/arkd/pull/577
Developers can dive in immediately with SDKs for Rust, Go, and TypeScript, making Arkade accessible across the entire Bitcoin dev ecosystem.
Follow along as we build Bitcoin's virtualization layer and we gear up for mainnet launch.
5/28/2025, 59 engagements
New Ark Simple explainer & FAQ
Bitcoin's blockchain offers strong security guarantees at the tradeoff of limited transaction throughput, high fees, and settlement delays, restricting its practical use for various applications requiring greater scalability, lower costs, or faster settlement.
Ark addresses these limitations primarily through a novel batching technique, aggregating numerous individual Bitcoin transactions into a single onchain Bitcoin commitment—called a Batch Output. This significantly reduces transaction costs per user and greatly enhances scalability.
The protocol mirrors Bitcoin’s familiar UTXO structure using Virtual Transaction Outputs (VTXOs). These offchain abstractions preserve a familiar output ownership model while embedding many claims into a single Batch Output. VTXOs ensure that users retain unilateral control over their funds and enable efficient offchain coordination before final settlement on Bitcoin.
Link for details!
👾
4/23/2025, 17 engagements
Last weekend at @blockspacepod’s OP_NEXT, we demoed Arkade — a prototype wallet built on the Ark protocol, live on Bitcoin mainnet.
While just a proof-of-concept, it pointed to something bigger: A new class of Bitcoin applications is possible today, without consensus changes.
Much of OP_NEXT focused on what soft forks might unlock. That’s important work — and we support it. But our focus has been different: Delivering utility with the Bitcoin we already have.
The Arkade Wallet isn’t just a teaser. It’s a working step toward reframing what’s possible on Bitcoin — here and now.
Many so-called L2s are still theoretical. Ark is real. It’s on mainnet. And it’s moving.
Ark isn’t a Lightning replacement. It opens up an entirely different design space: Modular apps, flexible coordination, programmable flows.
Arkade is more than a wallet — it’s the first look at a Bitcoin-native platform.
We’re building toward a future where Bitcoin isn’t just a store of value. It’s the foundation for programmable money and sovereign capital markets.
The tools are open. Let’s build.
🔗 github.com/ArkLabsHQ/wallet-sdk
4/18/2025, 13 engagements
Ark will 10x the Lightning self custodial user experience.
The days of channels and liquidity management are behind us.
Just swap.
(no soft fork needed)
👾
3/16/2025, 28 engagements
Progress report on our core Ark implementation!
With major releases and announcements on the horizon, this update enhances performance & reliability to strengthen our foundation.
👉 Optimized VTXO tree signing 👉 Connector trees 👉 SDK API updates
2/26/2025, 5 engagements
We built a Coinflip PoC using multiparty contracts on Ark!
Bonus points: it uses Nostr on the backend.
Ark's client-server architecture, built around presigned transactions, provides an interesting framework for coordinating complex multi-party interactions.
A key insight from our Coinflip implementation: Ark operators validate spending conditions off-chain, such that in the optimistic case, complex validation logic doesn't hit the blockchain at all.
Once the game concludes, players settle their balance without intermediary trust.
It's available here: Coinflip is available here: http://coinflip.casino
Check it out! 👾 https://m.primal.net/PFcL.png
2/21/2025, 15 engagements
Ark is NOT competing with Lightning.
You do NOT have to try to pull it down with your grade school understanding of it just because you feel insecure about the piss poor state of the solutions you are working on.
There is a VERY distasteful “not invented here” attitude from some Lightning developers circles who seem more than happy to point out Ark faults.
Clean your own room first.
2/19/2025, 2 engagements
Ark transactions are no different than Bitcoin transactions.
Once broadcasted they remain unconfirmed until at minimum the next Bitcoin block.
Unlike Bitcoin, Ark lets users chain unconfirmed transactions and choose when to settle them in a future block, into an Ark batch.
2/18/2025, 8 engagements
Batched bitcoin transactions.
No expensive ZK professor tech scripts.
No gated liquidity, no fragmented network effect.
Just presigned transactions, collateralized.
Soon.
2/17/2025, 4 engagements
Ark is sufficient as a scaling solution for the foreseeable future.
We have a lot to learn from the implications it will have on self custodial applications and the entire Lightning ecosystem.
If you're interested in additional opcodes to Bitcoin for security concerns then that's a different conversation but we have plenty of time to put together a compelling vision that can put consensus in motion.
2/8/2025, 15 engagements
Once our industry wakes up to the fact that Ark is not a payment pool, we'll be in a much better position to evaluate future scaling conversations.
Taproot transaction batching changes everything.
All priors need to be reevaluated.
Clean slate.
2/1/2025, 6 engagements
Let's play some games 👾
Since somebody asked…
We currently use Nostr in our PoC Ark wallet to enable users to recover expired VTXO funds.
1/29/2025, 23 engagements
By the way this is an interesting option for Nostr apps to integrate bitcoin payments/wallet functionality.
Different risk profile than ecash, less private out the box.
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1/26/2025, 3 engagements
Hey Nostr,
been a while heh. we’ll try to fix that… eventually.
Meanwhile, we just released our Ark wallet SDK!
It’s still at a very early stage but you can now interact with an Ark server, on signet.
Details 👇
https://blog.arklabs.to/introducing-the-ark-wallet-sdk-d1c77ce61cfc
1/25/2025, 29 engagements
If you truly want to accelerate covenant traction then the single best thing you can probably do is to contribute to development, tooling, and adoption of Ark.
It's the one thing every single one of you have control over.
11/28/2024, 2 engagements
Ark's superpower lies in its ability to leverage native Bitcoin script 🦸🏻♂️
Scaling UTXO-based contracts has the potential to enable a new generation of financial applications.
Today, we're happy to share our work on Virtual Channels, bringing instant settlement to Ark .
Few might remember that payment channels predate the Lightning Network ⚡️
Early implementations, like the unidirectional channels in bitcoinj, never caught on for a variety of reasons
One obvious downside comes from the high on-chain costs associated with channel setups.
Ark allows us to revisit this concept, unburdened by Bitcoin's limited block space.
Cost-effective deployment of payment channels becomes possible!
For users, Virtual Channels offer notable advantages over Lightning:
No backups ✅ No liveness requirements ✅ No routing ✅
Thanks to Tapscript, we can extend bare VTXO script beyond a single signer
By defining additional spending paths, we can encapsulate multi-party contracts within VTXOs, enabling the creation of Virtual Channels
Details and code snippets below👇
https://arkdev.info/blog/bitcoin-virtual-channels/
Virtual Channels are just the beginning!
By extending Bitcoin's script capabilities through Ark, we’re opening the door to a broader financial infrastructure secured by Bitcoin's consensus rules.
11/26/2024, 5 engagements
Ark offers a simple, secure way to optimize onchain costs for pretty much every Bitcoin use cases.
More complex and fancy ways to create channel factories or coinpools might exist but no one is building them nor are they likely too because the complexity invites inertia always.
The longer you look at Ark the more you realize that simple approaches win and we can simply iterate off this as we find product market fit.
Anyone that is interested to learn more or contribute please reach out I’m happy to take a minute to help people familiarize themselves with the protocol.
10/16/2024, 3 engagements
I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it to Berlin but I promise I’ll make it up to the ecash squad very soon.
We just announced yesterday in Amsterdam that @Boltz - Non-Custodial Bitcoin Bridge swaps are coming to Ark, day 1!
Thanks to native support for Bitcoin script operations, Ark allows servers to virtualize many of the same contracts used by existing Bitcoin products and services.
One we're excited about are Virtual HTLCs (vHTLCs). Combined with off-chain execution, we think they open the door to many new, and old, use cases that weren't possible before, or could not scale.
Those properties can extend to other script extensions of Bitcoin and potentially scale smart contract settlements!
Using virtual swaps, we can close Lightning's "liquidity loop" by providing participants with an interface to batch their channel management operations off-chain.
Many infrastructure providers will find interesting ways to leverage the efficiency of Ark swaps and we encourage anyone interested to reach out
10/11/2024, 8 engagements
A lot of angst and pessimism on the timeline over the last 24 hours around the prospect of future upgrades to the Bitcoin protocol.
TLDR; A number of highly technical people got together and apparently could not come to an agreement on the various tradeoffs of theoretical applications of covenants and associated OP codes.
Frankly, this is the least surprising outcome anyone could have expected out of this type of exercise.
Putting a bunch of gigabrain engineers into a room is not conducive to consensus. They will, by nature, try to outsmart one another.
"You haven't considered this angle." "What if we approached it this way?" "There's a more efficient way." "Have you really thought through the implications?"
Their drive to achieve the 'right' outcome fuels a race to devise "clever" solutions, each inevitably clashing with the alternatives.
If you're wondering why you should care about this at all. It's because most people involved do agree that multi-party on-chain contracts are necessary to achieve true scale.
The limitations of two-party Lightning channels are increasingly obvious hence the interest in optimizing the flow of capital around the network across larger hubs of individuals sharing UTXOs.
Unfortunately, the lack of first-hand experience with covenant-based constructs is allowing everyone’s imagination to run wild.
We are all attempting to optimize for the end game with little to no appreciation for the present situation.
Some have devised clever ways to implement zero-knowledge technology using Bitcoin script. Others are designing coin pool protocols that can potentially withstand the mass exit of hundreds of thousands of users without catastrophic economic consequences.
All of them are frustrated others can't seem to be as excited as them about their progress.
Meanwhile, a credible opportunity to further our common understanding of multi-party contracts is staring everyone in the face: the Ark protocol.
Unsurprisingly, most every one of these very competent individuals have their own opinions of it.
"The liquidity requirements are too high." "It can't possibly work without covenants." "Fees and unilateral exit scenarios are tricky."
Again, not only only are these experts seemingly fixated on perfecting the 'right' outcome, but at times it feels like they’re trying to control it.
My advice to everyone involved: let go of this obsession with perfection and embrace the good.
There are now two teams iterating through various ways to implement Ark in ways that can solve real problems, TODAY.
Sure, Ark as originally proposed and as currently implemented is not yet the ubiquitous payment grail it was originally propped up as.
A lot of different adversarial scenarios will challenge the different use cases vying to leverage it, but if you give it honest consideration, you will realize it is MUCH more practical than some would want you to believe.
It does not need to immediately find its way into retail user wallets to have a massive impact on the current Bitcoin payment infrastructure.
Various existing sets of counterparties should be able to use Ark as a simple and straightforward way to amortize the cost of their on-chain operations.
And if all you care about is to achieve pie-in-the-sky perfection then there is probably no better alternative as we speak to gain real world economic feedback on the behavior of users of those future protocols.
If you want to accelerate the development of technology that will directly inform the design of future covenant-based evolutions, I believe there is no better way to funnel your energy today than to participate in the conversation, contribute and start building on Ark.
Join us!
Could not be more excited to announce my new role leading ecosystem growth
Having observed and commented on the controversial state of Bitcoin layers over the year, it was impossible not to jump on board once
shared his vision for Ark.
(Thanks to the amazing team
for the opportunity to dive deep into this space. Nothing but good vibes and good times.)
Today, Ark is closer to reality than most can imagine, and the implications are yet to be fully appreciated.
UTXO-sharing will play a crucial part in the evolution of Bitcoin scaling and Ark is a monumental first step towards this future.
It addresses many issues of the issues that have crippled the adoption of Bitcoin as a payment infrastructure.
More importantly, Ark is not here to replace Lightning, I believe it will supercharge it ⚡️
Our first product, the Ark Node, is the perfect companion for Lightning node operators. If you are one of them, please reach out to me.
I can't wait to share more of what we have in store.
Stay tuned ⟁
9/25/2024, 1 engagement
Nostr : TCP/IP
Whatever they're building over there : OSI
Let's keep things weird folks cause this stuff going on over there is... uh... disturbing
8/29/2024, 1 engagement
Nostr is an accelerant to Bitcoin adoption and dismissing the nascent technology is probably as imprudent as it was in Bitcoin's early days.
My story on last week's Nostriga festivities 👇
8/29/2024, 2 engagements
What's the best way to follow everyone mentioned in a list/note like this?
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