Mintlayer, a Bitcoin sidechain, has just announced the introduction of its mainnet. After years of preparation, Mintlayer is now ready to launch on January 29, ushering in an entirely novel era for L2 networks based on Bitcoin.
Mintlayer, similar to Bitcoin, will begin with the generation of a Genesis block. Similarities between Bitcoin and the Mintlayer blockchain include an emphasis on security and a UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) paradigm.
By enabling non-Turing complete smart contacts, Mintlayer streamlines auditing and decreases attack vectors. By eliminating middlemen and complicated procedures like peg-in, wrapped, or federated tokens, Atomic Swaps will bring unparalleled security to the future by allowing tokens generated on Mintlayer to be swapped directly with Bitcoin.
As a sidechain, Mintlayer aims to improve Bitcoin’s functionality while keeping the features that have made the network trustworthy and resilient. Charlie Shrem, an advisor for the Bitcoin Foundation, is one of many seasoned professionals who helped build the Mintlayer sidechain.
Security must be prioritized for economic activity to thrive on L2s based on Bitcoin. Mintlayer is a Rust-based platform that aspires to replicate Bitcoin’s success by creating a consensus mechanism that blends Proof-of-Stake with Proof-of-Work. Like PoW, Mintlayer’s consensus requires block signers to “guess” the next block, but it places far less computing load, thus even low-powered devices may operate a node, allowing for wider participation.
On the Bitcoin sidechain, the ML token powers economic processes and helps with network staking. 400 million ML will already be pre-mined when Mintlayer launches. Following that, tokens will be distributed with each new block, which happens about every two minutes. In a deflationary fashion reminiscent to Bitcoin, token emissions will progressively decline until they reach zero after ten years.
A new age for tokenizing real-world assets will begin with the debut of Mintlayer, which will fortify Bitcoin’s L2 landscape. This will allow for the integration of further Bitcoin L2 solutions, including Lightning Network, and the launch of decentralized exchanges powered by Atomic Swaps.
