According to Trust Machines, Bitcoin is experiencing a significant increase in its use cases.
Bitcoin-based application development company Trust Machines has published a report highlighting the “explosive growth” of Bitcoin use cases in the first quarter of 2023.
According to the company, some of the most relevant current use cases in the blockchain network are: Non-fungible tokens or NFTs, Bitcoin Domain Name Service (BNS) and Web3 solutions such as Stacks, a smart contract platform that supports much of the Trust Machines ecosystem.
Bitcoin network use cases are increasing
In its report, Trust Machines notes that while Web3 development has been largely based on other blockchains such as Ethereum, Bitcoin development is beginning to take off thanks to the emergence of new technologies and opportunities.
Muneeb Ali, CEO of Trust Machines and co-founder of Stacks, said during the “Building on Bitcoin (for Real)” panel at the Consensus 2023 conference that Bitcoin has the potential to become the final settlement layer for the decentralized economy.
Also on the Empire podcast, Ali spoke about the potential of Ordinals Protocol, as the first use case of the Bitcoin blockchain that has managed to capture the interest of the right audience. The entrepreneur recalled that NFTs were born on the Bitcoin blockchain, even though most people associate them with Ethereum.
Ordinals, inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain similar to NFTs, have gained widespread popularity, surpassing the 3 million registrations at present.
Development of Web3 protocols based on Bitcoin
Web3 is the name given to the new decentralized Internet based on the blockchain.
This new web allows the creation of services and applications without intermediaries or central authorities, promising a freer, fairer and more participatory internet, where users and developers are the owners and beneficiaries of their own data and creations.
Some examples of Web3 projects that use the Bitcoin blockchain are:
- Stacks: a platform that allows building decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts on the Bitcoin network, taking advantage of its security and liquidity.
- RSK: a network that offers an Ethereum-compatible virtual machine on top of Bitcoin, facilitating the development of dApps and decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions.
- sovryn: a DeFi protocol that operates on top of RSK, offering services such as lending, token swaps, and derivatives with Bitcoin as the main asset.
- Lightning Network: a network of payment channels and the leading Bitcoin scaling solution that enables instant, low-cost transactions with BTC, opening up the possibility of creating new micropayment applications.
These technologies represent an opportunity to expand Bitcoin’s potential beyond payments and to drive innovation and financial inclusion in the Web3 era.
Ordinals Protocol and Nostr revitalize Bitcoin
Trust Machines emphasizes that protocols like Ordinals and Nostr are revitalizing the Bitcoin blockchain, boosting its use cases beyond the financial ecosystem.
In fact, the company has launched a content series on Bitcoin Ordinals, titled “Not Ordinary NFTs: An Exploration of Bitcoin Ordinals” (Not Your Ordinary NFTs). Through this series, Trust Machines presents new topics of interest regarding Ordinals and explains how this protocol has impacted the Bitcoin ecosystem and cryptocurrencies in general.
Regarding Nostr, the decentralized social media protocol backed by Jack Dorsey, Trust Machines highlighted that it is an innovation that has also rekindled interest in building on the Bitcoin blockchain, expanding the possibilities for users of this cryptocurrency.
On the other hand, the report published by the company also shows a 400% increase in the number of Bitcoin domain name registrations since 2022. According to the data, currently There are 13.000 Bitcoin-based domain names registered through the Bitcoin Name System (BNS)This platform allows users to register human-readable “.btc” domain names that can be used to host a website or to send and receive bitcoin payments.
Trust Machines attributes the surge in BNS registrations to both Ordinals and Nostr, which allows users to create and share content on the Bitcoin blockchain without middlemen or censorship.
Stacks, a blockchain built on Bitcoin
Finally, Trust Machines attributes the growth of Bitcoin use cases to the increasing development of Stacks, a platform that makes it easier to build decentralized applications based on the network without sacrificing its power, security and decentralization.
Market analysis firm Messari recently noted that Stacks has seen massive growth in the number of daily active users and addresses, with an increase of 76% and 42%, respectively, since the last quarter of 2022.
Stacks introduced the Stacks Bitcoin Token (sBTC) as a new digital asset that makes Bitcoin fully programmable and compatible with the decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFT ecosystem. In its whitepaper, published in 2022, Stacks explained how sBTC works and how this digital asset can be used to build DeFi applications by taking advantage of the Bitcoin network.
Continue reading: Grayscale: Ordinals can accelerate Bitcoin adoption
