The cryptocurrency market has recently shown a narrow range of fluctuations, with BTC prices continuing to fluctuate between $70,000 and $90,000. In the absence of significant positive catalysts, the community has also shifted its focus to some leading projects that have not yet launched TGEs. After more than a year of ecological construction, the TGE time of some leading Bitcoin ecological protocol projects has also gradually approached the critical point.
Recently, Bitlayer co-founder Kevin He made a concentrated response to issues of concern to the community, such as project TGE, high on-chain GAS fees, weak empowerment of official asset helmets, and ecological wealth-creating effects, and focused on disclosing the technical progress and future plans of BitVM.
In addition, in order to better collect community feedback, the Bitlayer team has launched a call for community development proposals, and participants can fill out questionnaires .
The following is Kevin’s response to a recent hot topic in the Bitlayer community. The full text is as follows:
About TGE and community incentives
Question 1: Bitlayer completed its seed round of financing as early as March 2024, and then successfully completed the A and A+ rounds of financing totaling 25 million US dollars. The team also gave BTR as an airdrop reward to community users in its operational activities very early. Does the team have a clear time for the project's TGE? What stage is it currently in?
Kevin: We are indeed in the final stage before TGE. The TGE stage will involve multi-dimensional systematic work including finalizing the token economic model, adapting the global compliance framework, and communicating with exchanges and market makers. However, since these links involve confidentiality agreements with partners, the specific timetable cannot be disclosed at this stage.
What is clear is that we have made positive progress in all aspects. Once all necessary processes are completed and final confirmation is obtained, we will make simultaneous progress through official announcements, community channels, and other channels as soon as possible. Please wait for good news.
Question 2: When does the team plan to announce the token economic model? How to set the token distribution ratio? What is the utility of the BTR token?
Kevin: The design of the token economic system is a key pillar of the project's long-term ecological value. The team has always promoted related work with rigor and sustainability as the core principles. At present, details such as token allocation ratio, release rules and utility scenarios have entered the final demonstration stage.
We understand the community's expectations for TGE, but we are unable to disclose specific details at this time. We promise to fully announce the token economic model through official channels at an appropriate stage before TGE, and reserve sufficient time for the community to interpret the rules. You can find the latest information in official articles later.
Question 3: Are there any lock-up rules for the BTR rewards that users receive through activities such as the First Mining Festival and BTCFI Carnival? How will the team prevent large-scale selling pressure in the market after the token is launched?
Kevin: The lock-up rules for the BTR rewards in the above-mentioned activities are related to the specific activities. For example, the airdrops in the 3rd First Mine Festival and the racing card drawing activities in the user center correspond to non-locked BTR rewards. For more details, you can check the corresponding event announcement for confirmation.
In general, our design of airdrop rewards strictly follows the principle of binding contribution with long-term value. All reward distribution processes will set differentiated release cycles based on on-chain behavior and ecological participation. Specific rules and details will be fully disclosed through official announcements before TGE, and will be open to community Q&A.
Question 4: Lucky Helmet is the first officially issued NFT of Bitlayer. Will there be other empowering initiatives in the future?
Kevin: The helmet is Bitlayer's first official NFT, and the holders are the first batch of Bitlayer users. Before this, we have provided helmet holders with points bonus and other empowerments in the first mining festival, and also carried out exclusive BTR token airdrops. The team has no reason to give up on the helmet empowerment, and we promise to carry out more empowerment in various activities in the future. If the holders have better suggestions, they can contact the Bitlayer team for feedback.
About ecological development and operation strategy
Question 5: We have noticed that some Bitlayer ecological projects have been suspended. Does Bitlayer have no audit mechanism when cooperating with ecological projects? In addition, the entire Bitlayer ecosystem currently has no wealth-creating effect and does not receive much attention. How do you view this issue?
Kevin: As a public chain operator, Bitlayer welcomes more projects to build and actively provides various infrastructure support. However, the construction of the entire chain ecosystem is still in its early stages. The maturity of the ecosystem also requires a long process of technical verification, developer accumulation, and market cognition iteration. There will inevitably be many projects of varying quality, but we must also see that many innovative products have also appeared in the ecosystem.
As for the lack of wealth creation, my understanding is that this is a problem for the entire industry, not just Bitlayer. We believe that as BTCFi and the entire chain continue to develop, ecological projects will surely usher in a booming stage.
Question 6: Bitlayer has cooperated with so many ecological projects in the First Mining Festival, but the rewards finally delivered by the projects are not enough to cover the gas fees for interaction.
Kevin: In the past year, Bitlayer has actively linked up with ecological projects and attracted user participation through points, token incentives and other means. As for the final reward of the project, one of the important reasons is that the current market conditions are general and the price performance may not meet everyone's expectations. I believe that as the market improves, the overall performance will improve.
Regarding the problem of ecological project airdrop rewards being difficult to redeem as reported by the community, the team is currently accelerating the Quick Jump solution based on the demands of partners and users to help users cross-chain with airdrop rewards obtained by participating in Bitlayer ecological project interactions at almost zero cost. This function is expected to be available in 2 weeks. In addition, for the gas interaction cost issue of the entire chain, we are actively promoting the implementation of the solution, and I believe that there will be a satisfactory answer to everyone soon.
Question 7: Currently, the Bitlayer ecosystem is not very prosperous. What can users do if they cross-chain BTC into the Bitlayer ecosystem?
Kevin: First of all, the high prosperity of the ecosystem is indeed a process. At the same time, the team has launched the BTCFi Yield portal ( https://www.bitlayer.org/btcfi ) considering the actual needs of users. We will integrate the DeFi products with higher returns on the market for user experience. At present, the market demand for products with relatively high APR is still very high. For example, the first phase of BTC Yield's BLBTC with a quota of 600 BTC took only 47 hours to be fully filled. In addition, based on these BTCFi products, we also hope to work with partners to solve various asset management needs of BTC and make the on-chain business environment truly realized.
About technology and user experience
Question 8: Currently, users generally report that the Gas fees on the chain are high. When is it expected that significant optimization can be achieved?
Kevin: With the recent advancement of the BitVM bridge mainnet and the approaching iteration of the V2 mainnet, the team will soon give an answer that satisfies users and further enhance the user experience.
Question 9: What positions do Layer 2 and BitVM Bridge occupy respectively in Bitlayer’s plan, and what will be the future business focus?
Kevin: Layer 2 and BitVM Bridge are two important and parallel business modules of Bitlayer, which work together through technical coupling and scenario synergy. Layer 2 is the basic foundation of Bitlayer. We will improve the experience of users and developers through V2 upgrades, lower gas fees, and continuous ecological support.
In addition, as a member of the BitVM Alliance, Bitlayer has made important contributions to the implementation of BitVM. The core of BitVM Bridge is the implementation of the so-called "1-of-N" trust model-as long as one of the multiple participants remains honest, the entire system can work properly. This is fundamentally different from the model that requires "most people to be honest." Of course, the planning of BitVM Bridge goes far beyond the cross-chain asset transfer function. Its goal is to connect Bitcoin liquidity providers (including large households, retail investors, and institutions) with the needs of asset management agreements. In the future, the team also plans to open source this technology and encapsulate it into an API service. For information about the implementation and application scenarios of BitVM, please refer to this video explanation: https://youtu.be/XzyYI6Kohd4?si=GHunGP6yOVZ7n8oZ
Whether it is building the Layer 2 ecosystem or the bridge business, these are what Bitlayer has been doing: developing the BTCFi ecosystem infrastructure.
Question 10: Bitlayer is a project based on the BitVM paradigm. How to balance ease of use and decentralization?
Kevin: To answer this question, I think the essence is to go back to the real needs of coin holders.
From institutional holders and large investors who focus on compliance and security (such as national reserves/BTC ETF issuers/listed companies/family offices, etc.) to retail investors who pursue efficient interaction, the diversity of their specific needs determines that we need to provide differentiated solutions for them. For institutions and high-net-worth holders, asset sovereignty control and compliance transparency are their primary needs. We hope to solve counterparty risks and ensure verifiability through the trust-minimized BitVM Bridge solution. For ordinary users, many people enter this field not necessarily to pursue the technical ideal of decentralization, but to be able to conveniently use on-chain businesses or products, so we need to develop with a pragmatic attitude, and at the same time, in addition to technology, focus on business expansion and market adaptability.
About roadmap and strategic planning
Q11: What is the core goal of Bitlayer’s 2025 technology roadmap?
Kevin: From the early days of the project to now, facing the market/solving industry pain points has always been our work North Star. After more than a year of technical accumulation, we have gradually begun to implement the research and development results. We can expect that we will have the following technical progress and implementation in the future: First, BitVM Bridge is currently in the test network stage, and we will usher in the main network launch later; second, V2 is online, and related functions are currently being improved. In addition, we are also conducting a series of research and development to improve user experience, such as the above-mentioned reduction of Gas fees, and support for high-frequency trading functions, all of which are in our clear goals and plans. The ultimate goal of Bitlayer is to build a business closed loop that realizes value creation and value release, operate profitable businesses, and become a cross-cycle enterprise.
Question 12: What differentiation strategies will the team adopt in global operations? How to expand the ecological influence?
Kevin: Since the establishment of Bitlayer, the team has been adhering to the operation strategy of being based in Asia and facing the world. The Asian market is our base. We have built very good local communities in many Asian countries. At the same time, we are also actively expanding into North America, the Middle East, Europe and other markets. After hard work, Bitlayer's development achievements and potential have been recognized by a large number of institutions in North America, and more cooperation is being promoted.
When it comes to ecology, we must clearly realize that the construction of blockchain ecology takes time and requires the joint efforts of the official team, developers and the community. We firmly recognize the general direction of Bitcoin DeFi, and by investing in two core technologies (BitVM+high-frequency chain), we have created two products (BitVM Bridge and Layer 2) to meet the asset management needs of various Bitcoin holders. As infrastructure is gradually improved and external conditions are gradually met, we believe that the prosperous Bitcoin DeFi will definitely happen in the Bitlayer ecosystem.
