Bitlayer Collaborates with Mining Pools Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool to Advance BitVM Technology Deployment

According to a report by CoinDesk, the Bitcoin Layer 2 network Bitlayer, built on the BitVM architecture, has established partnerships with the world’s top three Bitcoin mining pools: Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool. This collaboration will enable the BitVM Bridge to enter the practical deployment phase, facilitating the real-world application of BitVM.

The Ethereum smart contract network remains the most popular infrastructure in the cryptocurrency space, offering a decentralized, Turing-complete virtual machine (EVM). Due to technical limitations, Bitcoin lacks support for Turing-complete smart contracts. In October 2023, developer Robin Linus proposed BitVM as a universal computing solution for Bitcoin, allowing complex calculations involved in smart contracts to be executed off-chain, with the final results confirmed through on-chain verification mechanisms, functioning similarly to Optimistic rollups.

Bitlayer is built upon the BitVM architecture with the goal of achieving scalability without compromising Bitcoin’s security, providing infrastructure for Bitcoin financial applications (BTCFi). However, achieving this vision requires the participation of miners, which is the crux of the new partnership.

Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool account for over 36% of the total global hash power of Bitcoin. Bitlayer has stated that these mining pools have agreed to support Non-Standard Transactions (NST) — a key component of the BitVM challenge-response mechanism. Their support will address critical bottlenecks faced in the deployment of BitVM and further advance the practical application of the system.

NST refers to those transaction types that are valid under Bitcoin’s consensus rules but are not relayed by the default Bitcoin Core software. Therefore, without collaboration from miners, these transactions would struggle to be packaged on-chain and gain confirmation. Under this partnership, Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool will act as Guardians of the BitVM Bridge, ensuring that NSTs can be smoothly included in blocks and become part of Bitcoin’s immutable ledger.

The BitVM Bridge is a special tool that enables the secure and trustworthy flow of Bitcoin to other blockchain ecosystems, such as Rollups, cross-chain protocols, or smart contract platforms, without relying on centralized intermediaries. This opens the door to broader Bitcoin DeFi applications while retaining the network’s robust security guarantees.

This collaboration is not only a significant milestone for Bitlayer but also provides strategic advantages for miners, especially as Bitcoin block rewards are halved every four years, leading to declining revenues. Andy, the CEO of Antpool, pointed out that Bitlayer’s BitVM can drive new economic activities and create fee-based revenue for miners. He stated:

Related reports: “Bitcoin L2 project Bitlayer completes $11 million Series A funding led by Franklin Templeton” “Bitcoin developer releases BitVM2 white paper to enhance network scalability”