OKX integrates Bitcoin rollup LumiBit – BitcoinBlog.de – the blog for Bitcoin and other virtual currencies

Thanks to Taproot, it became possible to scale Bitcoins using rollups and other interesting methods and enrich them with new functions. The OKX wallet now integrates one of these: LumiBit not only increases capacity, but also allows smart contracts like Ethereum.

While the Bitcoin community is still grappling with how to make Lightning user-friendly, the OKX wallet has that Rollup LumiBit implemented.

A rollup like LumiBit scales Bitcoins off-chain, i.e. outside the Bitcoin blockchain. It is strongly based on the rollups common on Ethereum – especially the architecture of Scroll – and anchors transactions via zero-knowledge proofs on the Bitcoin blockchain. There are potentially hundreds of transactions behind a proof that is posted onchain.

Unlike the Lightning Network, LumiBit scales not only transaction capacity, but also functionality: LumiBit implements the EVM, the Ethereum Virtual Machine, and thus Etereum’s Turing-complete smart contract environment. In addition, it also brings smart wallets to Bitcoin with Account Abstraction. This enables new backup strategies – and non-fiduciary debit cards!

Innovations through Taproot

Rollups like LumiBit are one of the many innovations that the Taproot update made possible. The wallet OKX is apparently jumping on these new developments. As a “Web3” wallet, anything that brings Bitcoin closer to the usual Web3 apps is probably attractive to them. OKX implemented NFTs through Ordinals early on and built a marketplace for BRC-20 tokens. Just a few days ago, OKX also added the Bitcoin Name Service System (BNSx) to the wallet, which, analogous to ENS, replaces a Bitcoin address with a .bnsx domain that is more accessible to humans.

Therefore, it is only fitting that the OKX Wallet becomes the co-host of the Bitcoin Renaissance Summit, which will be held on the sidelines of the ETHDenver conference taking place in late February. The Bitcoin Renaissance Summit is a special event that goes beyond the usual conferences dominated by onchain, lightning, mining and holding and instead focuses on the emerging world of new Bitcoin Layer 2 technologies, sidechains, rollups, tokens, NFTs and more .

The Bitcoin Renaissance Summit brings together a new generation of Bitcoiners who believe Bitcoin is the best money possible, but are also excited about what the Web3 community has built on Ethereum. OKX seems to fit in well here.

Little movement so far

However, one should not make the mistake of thinking that OKX is a purely experimental Bitcoin wallet. OKX is first and foremost a Web3 wallet that, according to its own description, supports more than 80 networks. In addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, these include sidechains and rollups such as Arbitrum, Optimism or Polygon as well as a barely manageable number of other blockchains, such as Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, NEAR, Filecoin, Solana and many more.

And even though there are an ever-growing number of Layer2 solutions for Bitcoin that enable EVM, Web3 apps and account abstraction, usage mostly remains far below expectations. Older sidechains like Liquid or Rootstock never gained a serious foothold in the market, newer sidechains like Stacks have minimal usage compared to Ethereum and its rollups and sidechains, and even the Ordinals and BRC20 tokens remain a niche project.

The BTC Layer 2 scene is on the rise!

Despite Ethereum championing Layer 2 for three years with 38 L2s (according to @l2beat), the number of Bitcoin L2s has surged to 25 in less than a year.

Check out the comprehensive list of Bitcoin L2s compiled by the Ventures team below 👇 pic.twitter.com/vWGDP7o0fQ

— DWF Ventures (@DWFVentures) February 7, 2024

Maybe it’s because the Bitcoin community is committed to Onchain, ETF and Lightning, while the Web3 community has long found a home in Ethereum, Solana and the wider EVM ecosystem. As promising as the developments on Bitcoin made possible by Taproot are, there is so far little sign that they will achieve a breakthrough.

A super wallet for Bitcoin

Maybe a Bitcoin-only wallet that is open to all layers could change something. Such a super wallet would transport Bitcoins via Lightning, LumiBit, Stacks, Rootstock, Liquid, WBTC, and implement BRC20 tokens as well as NFTs. It would give Bitcoiners the opportunity to exploit what technically already exists without getting confused in an overwhelming mass of networks and coins, as is the case with OKX.

In general, the OKX wallet doesn’t really convince me. It starts with registration, which requires an email and a phone number, and with first having a smart wallet, which at first glance doesn’t work with Bitcoin. In order to add new wallets, you have to save the actual wallet via Google Drive, which unfortunately didn’t work for me. So the user experience was more of a disappointment for me.

Overall, it is encouraging that innovative Bitcoin apps and scaling are making the leap into a wallet. But OKX is not yet the solution.