Cryptocurrency users now have received the possibility to enjoy the benefits of DLCs on the Bitcoin mainnet.
Following continuous claims by Bitcoin (BTC) critics, the first bets have been reportedly placed on the Bitcoin Mainnet using Discreet Log Contract (DLC). This record-breaking update was made known by Nicholas Dorier, popularly known as the man who has made it his life’s mission to make BitPay obsolete, on his Twitter handle.
As Marty Bent noted, the bet on the Bitcoin Mainnet heralds “a very important moment in Bitcoin history.” as the other digital currency blockchain networks like Ethereum (ETH) and EOS have DLC already launched on their mainnets.
The Bitcoin (BTC) mainnet’s DLC smart contract is political in nature with Nicolas Dorier placing a $10,000 bet using the DLC about the next winner of the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States against Suredbits founder Chris Stewart, and Outcome Observer acting as a third-party oracle.
The programmed outcome is between the incumbent president and Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The DLC smart contract was also created to give allowance for other potential candidates that may win, in which case neither Dorier nor Stewart will get to lose their bet.
Brief Overview of Discreet Log Contract (DLC)
The Discreet Log Contract is a secret contract that can allow two parties to form a monetary contract by redistributing their funds to each other, based on preset conditions, without revealing any details of those conditions to the blockchain.
In this case, both parties commit funds to the contract, but its appearance on the blockchain will be no different than an ordinary multi-signature output. Therefore the contract is discreet in the sense that no external observer can learn its existence or details from the public ledger.
While the potentials of DLC has been long made known, the DLC made possible by Suredbits is remarkably the first real case implementation for the innovation. As detailed by Marty Bent, the two parties in the DLC smart contract construct multiple transactions that decide where the funds are sent; in this case, there is a transaction that sends the funds to Chris and another that sends them to Nicolas depending on the outcome of the election.
The movement of funds within the DLC is dependent on a signature from an Oracle that confirms the outcome of the event once it happens. The Oracle has no idea who is using their signature to execute DLCs unless users publicly state that they are.
While it is generally opined that the emergence of smart contracts on the bitcoin mainnet is slower than other networks, the recent bets may usher the mainnet into a new lease of DLC smart contracts outburst.
“DLCs may be the least appreciated “killer application” of Bitcoin out there right now. It will be very interesting to see the types of applications that begin to proliferate as more people come around to this type of smart contract.” Bent submitted.