Advancing Bitcoin into the Agentic Era.
Joined June 2023
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- Followers1.6K
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Fairgate retweeted
New research from Fairgate's CTO, @SDLerner: FlatMerkle.
The paper introduces a way to achieve compact, logarithmic-size inclusion proofs using a single linear hash stream, without requiring a traditional Merkle tree.
Read the paper: eprint.iacr.org/2026/2468.pd…
Fairgate retweeted
Bitcoin Script has no native SHA-512.
BitVMX enables funds to be locked based on a SHA-512 preimage, evaluating the hash function as a garbled circuit off-chain, settling the result on-chain with a fixed set of transactions. Tested on Bitcoin mainnet.
bitvmx.org/knowledge/using-g…
Fairgate retweeted
Signing a Bitcoin transaction is easy. Getting it to a durable confirmation is not.
A new BitVMX article breaks down a Transaction Coordinator library: broadcast, tracking, automatic fee bumping via CPFP/RBF, and structured event reporting.
bitvmx.org/knowledge/a-bitco…
Fairgate retweeted
Union Bridge, built jointly by @FairGateLabs and @rootstock_io on @bitvmx, takes a novel approach for Bitcoin bridging: cryptographic verification instead of trusted execution.
bitvmx.org/knowledge/union-b…
Fairgate retweeted
Working on or researching BitVMX?
We’ve just launched a dedicated Papers section collecting all our academic research in one place.
Protocol design, verification models, and Bitcoin-native computation: all centralized and easy to explore.
Check it out!
bitvmx.org/papers
Fairgate retweeted
Research is at the core of BitVMX.
bitvmx.org/papers
Check out the new Papers section where you can find all our academic publications and ongoing research efforts.
A single hub for our work on Bitcoin-native protocols and verification.
Take a look at it here 👇
Fairgate retweeted
The original proposal of "sidechains" to Bitcoin by Gregory Maxwell @adam3us @TheBlueMatt and others proposed a new opcode to enable trustless sidechain pegging... but the idea was quickly dropped after the release of the canonical paper.
@rootstock_io creator @SDLerner comments on why this architecture was never pushed forward and how the political environment for making changes to Bitcoin has changed since that era, now over a decade ago.
Check out the full "History of Sidechains" episode of Bitcoin Rails in comments below 👇
Fairgate retweeted
Something not discussed often enough is that incentives to execute a 51% attack goes up substantially with bridging "honeypots" created by Layer 2s.
According to @RootstockLabs creator and @FairGateLabs CTO @SDLerner, this was likely a reason early discussions of upgrading Bitcoin to faciliate trustless bridges (eg via the canonical sidechains paper by @adam3us and others) were not pursued over a decade.
To be fair, miner centralization was a much greater risk at that time—but remains a risk today, especially as the Bitcoin block subsidy declines. Full episode in the comments 👇
Fairgate retweeted
Huge thanks to everyone who joined us today at Arbitrum Stylus Awakening 🇦🇷
Incredible energy in the room with @srinjoycal from @Offchain Labs, @baygeeth from @Superpositionso,@0xMilton from @WakeUpLabs, @Pememoni from @0xFairblock, @SDLerner from @FairGateLabs, and so many more pushing the Stylus ecosystem forward on @Arbitrum.
Deep-dives, demos, real conversations, and a community that just keeps leveling up.
#ArbitrumEverywhere (@arbitrumdao_gov)
Fairgate retweeted
What an honor to discuss @bitvmx from @FairGateLabs' team and the OG @rootstock_io paper with @SDLerner and @rootstock_io team and @K_Puddiin (@Curia_gov) and @zeebradoom (@BigBrainVC)!
Thank you again for @RootstockColl for making this happen!
BitVMX Notes:
- Unlike BitVM2’s virtual CPU + small validator set, BitVMX uses pure hash-based challenge games instead of simulating full instruction traces.
- Uses Lamport one-time signatures
- Watchtowers monitor validators and prevent fund theft or invalid state transitions.
- Security is 1-honest-party: any validator can challenge a faulty step and force an on-chain check.
- Teams are testing Garbled Circuits to compress proofs to fit Bitcoin’s tiny script limits.
- Main goal: make it easy for builders to deploy real applications on Bitcoin.
- Union Bridge is first instantiation of BitVMX framework.
Summary: docs.google.com/document/d/1…
Rootstock Notes:
- Rootstock emerged during a period of intense debate around Bitcoin’s scaling and programmability.
- Early merge mining work focused on preventing chain instability when hash rate fluctuated.
- The biggest challenge: onboarding miners and keeping incentives aligned.
- The two-way peg (BTC↔RBTC) uses HSM-based federation keys; newer HSM designs are being explored.
- EVM parallel execution only gives ~30% real-world performance gain.
- Main bottleneck: the Merkle Patricia Trie used for state storage.
- Research team is exploring append-only, periodically-pruned structures to simplify state and boost throughput.
Summary:
What an amazing experience to analyse the @rootstock_io and @bitvmx Whitepapers together with the community and the founders of both projects.
Moments like this show the power of open discussion and collective learning in the ecosystem.
📍Kopi Cafe together with @WPReadingClub
Always inspiring to learn together.
Fairgate retweeted
Really nice conversation going on in this panel hosted at @FairGateLabs event: @SuperTestnet @SDLerner @liameagen @isabelfoxenduke
Fairgate retweeted
…if you want to build on Bitcoin you need @bitvmx . Here is @SDLerner at @labitconf guiding us on a tour around the past, present and future of computation on Bitcoin. (If you look close enough you can see what’s coming)
Fairgate retweeted
📢 Atención developers en Buenos Aires: Nuevo @BitdevsBA 💥
Jueves 30 de octubre · 19:00 a 22:00 (GMT-3)
🔥 Con una charla imperdible de @SDLerner y Pedro Prete sobre @bitvmx
Entrada gratuita (registro previo)💥📍
Regístrate aquí: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
Fairgate retweeted
BitVMX’s open source journey continues.
bitvmx.org/knowledge/bitvmxs…
We’re sharing two core components:
🛰️ Operator Comms: direct TLS-based peer channels
🧩 Broker: routing, allowlists, and message flow
Discover the details 👇
Fairgate retweeted
What makes BitVMX Protocol Builder a key piece in Bitcoin protocol design?
It brings structure and determinism to Bitcoin protocol engineering, mapping every possible execution as a DAG of pre-signed txs.
bitvmx.org/knowledge/bitvmx-…
Read more in Diego's latest article here 👇
Fairgate retweeted
What an event! btc++ held our lightning++ edition in Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪 was such a thrilling experience.
We had amazing speakers and bitcoin dev leaders showcasing their work. Thank you to everyone!
Calle @callebtc of @CashuBTC
Allen Farrington @allenf32 of FLUX
Alex Lewin @_AlexLewin of @fedibtc
Steve Lee @moneyball Lead of @spiralbtc as well as Spiral's Maurice @mauricepoirrier , Austin Krauss @_austin_f, Elias Rohrer @_tnull and Matt Corallo @TheBlueMatt
Sergio Lerner @SDLerner and Pedro Prete of @FairGateLabs
Shinobi @brian_trollz and Michael @buckeye_bitcoin of @BitcoinMagazine
Roland @rolznz and Moritz @MoritzKaminski from @getAlby
Rene Pickhard @renepickhardt
/rootz @rootzoll of @RaspiBlitz
Peter Todd @peterktodd of @opentimestamps
Nickolas Goline @ngoline of @OpenSats
Michael Blankenship @michaelbship and Christian Decker @Snyke of @Blockstream
Max Fang @MaxFangX of @lexeapp
Koty Auditore @Koty_Auditore of @LNMarkets
Jonathan Harvey-Buschel @jonhbit
Joanuctus @jaoNoctus of @zbdapp
Fernando Ledesma @LedesmaNando of Libreria de Satoshi
Fabrice Drouin of @acinq_co
Evan Kaloudis @evankaloudis of @ZeusLN
Erik De Smedt @erikdesmedt of @secondhq
Erick Cestari and Davidson Souza of @Vinteum_org
Ek of @stacker_news
Dusty Daemon @dusty_daemon
David Rodriguez of @base58btc <3
Zoe Faltibà @zoefaltiba of @bitfinex
Thank you to all the attendees and of course thank you to all of our sponsors, staff and volunteers that helped make this happen ❤️⚡️
Thank you all 🫶
Fairgate retweeted
Designing multi-party Bitcoin protocols is a complex task.
BitVMX Protocol Builder simplifies this process, making it easier to build and audit.
bitvmx.org/knowledge/new-bit…
Now available in our Open Source components listing.
Find out more in our latest article 👇
Fairgate retweeted
Excited to announce @SDLerner of @FairGateLabs will be speaking at @btcplusplus in Berlin this October 2 - 4. Join us for electric days of Lightning talks, workshops, and panels in the most cypherpunk community in the world ⚡
