The Bitcoin developer renowned for exploiting a bug in the Lightning Network, prompting an emergency update in 2022, is now focusing on a new Bitcoin layer 2 solution aimed at expanding decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on Bitcoin.
Known as “Burak,” this developer previously created Ark Protocol, a competitor to the Lightning Network last year, and has now introduced “Brollups.”
Brollup is a layer 2 protocol designed to utilize Bitcoin’s native capabilities, facilitating transaction bundling without requiring a Bitcoin hard fork or introducing a non-Bitcoin token, as explained by Burak.
In a Medium post on June 21, Burak mentioned that Brollups are still in the design phase. Speaking to Cointelegraph, he hinted at a potential rollout on a signet (testnet) later this year.
Burak envisions Brollups supporting over 90% of DeFi use cases once fully launched.
“Whether it’s listing an NFT for sale in exchange for Bitcoin where the buyer pays with Bitcoin upon execution, or placing a token sell order on a decentralized exchange, [all of this is] atomically executed, verifiable, scalable, and enforceable on Bitcoin.”
Burak emphasized that Brollups are deeply integrated into Bitcoin’s framework, seamlessly working with Bitcoin as a payment construct.
“Brollups will be overseen by ‘operators’ who provide liquidity to the protocol and progress the rollup state by chaining Bitcoin transactions at regular intervals. Transactions will run on the Bitcoin Virtual Machine.
Burak has earned acclaim in the Bitcoin community for developing this solution without necessitating a Bitcoin hard fork or introducing a new token.
From Lightning Network exploitation to scaling solution development
In October 2022, Burak exploited the Lightning Network with a 998-of-999 multisignature Taproot transaction.
This incident prompted an emergency update for Lightning Network node operators when Burak’s actions briefly caused all nodes to lose synchronization.
While no funds were stolen in the transaction — which incurred a minimal $5 transaction fee — it underscored an unintended consequence of the Taproot upgrade, noted industry observers at the time.”
Until January 2023, the utilization of the Taproot upgrade remained minimal, with Casey Rodarmor launching the Ordinals protocol to change that.
Taproot transactions peaked at 46.4% of all Bitcoin transactions in December 2023 but have since declined to 30% this month, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard by Data Always.
Drivechain and Spiderchain are also notable Bitcoin scaling initiatives aiming to integrate DeFi capabilities into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In May 2022, Burak introduced Ark, a layer-2 solution for Bitcoin primarily focused on simplifying payments without requiring payment channels.
