By
Benjamin Njiri
April 23rd, 2024
The new proposal talks about the effective use of sidechains while making it easy for Bitcoin developers to add new features to the Bitcoin network.
Director of research at startup Tierion -Paul Sztorc – has recently arrived with a new code called Drivechain that could drastically expand the capabilities of Bitcoin. The proposal that Bitcoin can add a vast number of features to the limited supply of cryptocurrency, has finally landed on the testnet.
Note that the idea was initially conceived three years back in November 2015. Since then the proposal has gained a lot of traction and is currently considered as the best way to implement sidechains on the Bitcoin network. The sidechain concept talks about developing branches on the Bitcoin network that would function in a way similar to the Ethereum tokens.
The crypto assets present on the sidechains could be then subjected to customized programming. “With sidechains, altcoins are obsolete, Bitcoin smart contracts are possible, Bitcoin Core and BitcoinXT can coexist, and all hard forks can become soft forks. Cool upgrades to Bitcoin are on the way”, was stated back in 2015.
Initially, the entire program was pioneered by Blockstream. However, Sztorc’s modifications and applications has made it even more appealing. In his latest blog post, Sztorc writes:
“If this ‘multi-network coin’ idea is found to be viable, it has profound implications for the crypto’s most salient problems. Bitcoin would be able to copy, without controversy, any technology, including: larger blocks, Turing-completeness, and ring signatures.”
However, Sztorc was immediate to point out that this is just the first code release of the concept and that it still “isn’t perfect”. He just added that “It’s good to be able to show people what exactly Drivechain does: it allows Bitcoin to travel among different pieces of software.”
The new version of the code would solve a long-standing problem of Bitcoin developers, of the inability of new features to be added without major changes to the existing incentives of the blockchain network. The Drivechain visual guide gives a complete idea regarding how the entire thing works. Sztorc writes:
“There would be no need to fight about which features bitcoin ‘should’ have (or over which features ‘define’ bitcoin).”
The guide shows how the bitcoin can be transferred from the main chain to the sidechain, how to use the sidechain, and finally send the Bitcoin back to the main chain. “We demonstrated sending BTC to a different piece of software. Then we sent that BTC back to the main chain”.