The Bitcoin development company, Blockstream, has unveiled “simplicity”, a programming language for intelligent contracts built on the liquid of the layer-2 network.
Co-founded by the cryptographer and early contributor to Bitcoin, Dr Adam Back, Blockstream introduced simplicity in order to solve the limits of Bitcoin as a place of intelligent contracts.
“Simplicity gives Bitcoin Expressive Smart Contracting Power, but without the security problems associated with VM -based channels,” said an announcement by email on Thursday. “It is built from zero to be officially specified, secure and efficient.”
The thrust of native Bitcoin programmability has grown in recent years, in particular since the introduction of BITVM in 2023, a frame that explored how complex calculations could be checked on Bitcoin without modifying the basic protocol.
The origins of simplicity are in fact prior to BITVM, having been conceptualized by Blockstream Research, Dr. Russell O’Connor in 2012. It is designed to allow intelligent contracts to avoid some of the functionalities such as unlimited loops which can lead to vulnerabilities and exploits on networks like Ethereum.
Instead, Simplicity uses the Bitcoin UTXO model, according to which tokens like digital species and users spend specific parts, as opposed to updated account sales.
Simplicity is now live on the liquid network, a Bitcoin Layer-2 with more than $ 3 billion in total locked value (TVL), allowing developers to create many banal applications on smart blockchains with intelligent contracts, such as programmable vaults, decentralized complaint exchanges, childcare services and governance protocols, using Bitcoin as a settlement.
