Fractal Bitcoin: Comprehensive Research Report

Abstract

Fractal Bitcoin was launched on September 9, 2024, and may represent an emerging field in the cryptocurrency market. Although Fractal has captured a significant portion of Bitcoin's hash power within a few days of its launch, it remains relatively unfamiliar to many in the global crypto community. This study aims to unveil this innovative project that has rapidly gained attention within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Key Points

1. Innovative Mining Method: Fractal introduces a hybrid mining model that combines merged mining and permissionless mining. This model provides a new perspective on PoW, proving that even as the industry shifts towards PoS, PoW remains a robust method for network security.

2. Bitcoin's pioneer network: Due to its compatibility with the Bitcoin mainnet, Fractal provides developers with a real testing environment, offering valuable user data and activity insights. The activation of OP_CAT on Fractal marks the beginning of numerous anticipated experiments, solidifying Fractal's role as a potential upgrade and innovation testing ground for Bitcoin.

3. From day one, having a strong user base: By collaborating with several wallets, Fractal successfully attracted the most active Bitcoin users from the start. This early adoption helped Fractal avoid the common "cold start" problem that new platforms face.

4. Grassroots and Community-Oriented: Fractal maintains a pragmatic community-driven strategy, avoiding excessive hype and institutional influence. This focus on organic growth and participation is at its core.

5. Ecosystem Integration: Fractal successfully integrates key participants in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including the BRC-20, Ordinals, and Runes communities, positioning Fractal ahead of current Bitcoin trends.

1. Introduction

Fractal Bitcoin is the only Bitcoin scaling solution that recursively expands infinitely using the Bitcoin core code itself, built on the world's safest and most widely held blockchain.

To fully understand the innovation of Fractal, it is necessary to understand the historical background of the Bitcoin scalability discussion. In 2017, the Segregated Witness (SegWit) soft fork aimed to increase the block capacity of Bitcoin, followed by the controversial Bitcoin Cash (Bitcoin Cash) hard fork as another method of expansion. Starting in 2018, increasing attention turned to second-layer solutions, such as the Lightning Network (Lightning Network). In this ongoing exploration of Bitcoin's scalability and functional enhancement, Fractal emerged as a new approach, offering a unique perspective on addressing these long-term challenges.

As an important milestone, Fractal's mainnet will officially launch on September 9, 2024, at 00:00 UTC.

The recent launch has achieved remarkable success, showcasing the project's strong appeal and technical robustness. Within just 24 hours of the mainnet launch, Fractal's joint mining accounted for over 40% of Bitcoin's total hash rate, while free mining on Fractal represented 2% of Bitcoin's hash rate. To better understand these figures, the free mining hash rate on Fractal has already surpassed three times the total hash rate of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). This rapid adoption by miners demonstrates a high level of confidence in Fractal's technology and its potential.

The project has attracted participation from major players in the mining sector. Large mining pools such as F2Pool, Antpool, and Spiderpool have already joined Fractal's mining ecosystem. Additionally, several other well-known mining pools are preparing to participate, indicating that interest in the Fractal mining network is increasing and has the potential for further expansion.

2. Core Concepts and Technologies

2.1 Native Bitcoin Scaling

Fractal, as the native extension of Bitcoin, differentiates itself from other scaling solutions through its approach. By leveraging Bitcoin's existing codebase and modifying block production parameters, Fractal maintains full compatibility with the Bitcoin mainnet, ensuring seamless integration with existing infrastructure. This approach enhances functionality without compromising the core security model of Bitcoin, striking a balance between innovation and upholding the fundamental principles of Bitcoin.

2.2 Technical Specifications

Fractal has introduced several key technological innovations:

• Block Time: Fractal has implemented a 30-second block time, which is a significant improvement compared to Bitcoin's 10-minute block time. This faster block time allows for quicker transaction confirmations, greatly enhancing user experience. Additionally, it significantly increases the overall throughput of the network, potentially supporting a wider range of complex applications that require high transaction volumes.

• Mining Mechanism: Fractal employs a unique hybrid mining method. Out of every three blocks, two are mined without permission, while the other is mined in conjunction with Bitcoin. This innovative mechanism encourages decentralization by allowing individual miners to freely participate in the production of two-thirds of the blocks. At the same time, it enhances security by utilizing Bitcoin's powerful computing power through joint mining of every third block. This balanced approach aims to maintain network security and decentralization while incentivizing existing Bitcoin miners to support the Fractal network.

• Scalability: The architecture of Fractal theoretically supports infinite layers of improvement. Each Fractal layer provides a 20-fold capacity increase compared to the Bitcoin mainnet. This means that the base layer offers 20 times the capacity of Bitcoin, while the second layer will provide 400 times the capacity. This exponential scalability model allows Fractal to address Bitcoin's throughput limitations while maintaining the security properties of the base layer.

• Smart Contract Functionality: By implementing the OP_CAT opcode, Fractal has achieved Turing-complete smart contracts on a Bitcoin-based platform. OP_CAT is a simple concatenation operation that, when combined with other opcodes, can facilitate complex smart contract logic. This functionality opens up possibilities for advanced DeFi protocols, intricate NFT mechanisms, and other decentralized applications that were previously limited to the Ethereum platform.

• Parallel Execution: The architecture of Fractal allows different applications to run their own instances, ensuring that specific optimizations do not affect the entire network. For example, a gaming platform can operate on a specially optimized Fractal layer for high-frequency, low-value transactions, while DeFi protocols can leverage independently tuned layers for financial operations.

• Compatibility: Fractal maintains 100% compatibility with Bitcoin standards ( such as BRC-20 and Ordinals ). This ensures that existing Bitcoin tokens and NFTs can operate seamlessly. Additionally, users can use the same address between the Bitcoin mainnet and Fractal, simplifying the user experience and reducing the risk of address management errors.

2.3 Unique User Experience

Unlike other Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions, wallet addresses on Fractal are identical to mainnet addresses. This design offers Ethereum-like convenience, allowing users to switch networks within their wallets to access different layers. In contrast to other Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions that require separate EVM wallet addresses, Fractal allows users to continue using their Bitcoin mainnet addresses for Layer 2 activities. As of now, some major wallets serving the majority of active Bitcoin DeFi and collectibles users fully support Fractal Bitcoin.

3. The Position of Fractal in the Bitcoin Ecosystem

Comparison of 3.1 with Other Bitcoin Solutions

Fractal has entered a highly competitive market for Bitcoin scaling solutions. Below is a comparison with some major alternatives:

• EVM-compatible Layer 2: Some projects are attempting to create EVM-based second-layer solutions for Bitcoin. While these solutions are relatively easy to implement and launch, they face significant challenges in terms of acceptance within the Bitcoin community. The Bitcoin ecosystem, especially its core users and developers, often views these EVM-compatible solutions as "Frankensteins." In contrast, Fractal takes a Bitcoin-native approach aimed at expanding Bitcoin's capabilities without introducing external architectures. This approach may align better with the ideals of Bitcoin purists and could lead to better integration and adoption within the existing Bitcoin ecosystem.

• Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ): Bitcoin Cash emerged as a hard fork of Bitcoin, aiming to improve scalability through larger block sizes. This approach led to a divide within the Bitcoin community, forcing users to choose between two competing visions of Bitcoin. The fork of BCH sparked numerous political debates, often overshadowing the technical discussions. In contrast, Fractal takes a fundamentally different approach. It does not create an independent chain or force users to make a choice, but rather embraces Bitcoin as the mainnet and seeks to scale it locally. The architecture of Fractal allows for the creation of multiple instances to scale together, potentially providing infinite scalability without sacrificing the security or decentralization of the underlying layer.

• Lightning Network (: The Lightning Network excels in fast, low-cost payments and high privacy, but its smart contract functionality is limited and it faces channel liquidity issues. In contrast, Fractal offers comprehensive smart contract support, does not require channel management, and provides a simpler user experience.

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) 3.2 Market Strategy and Built-in User Base

Fractal stands out in the highly competitive Layer 2 space, not only relying on technological innovation but also gaining an advantage through strategic market approaches and a strong built-in user base. With the support of some wallets, this allows Fractal to reach an actively engaged audience.

Many wallet users already hold assets such as BRC20 tokens and Runes in their wallets. These users naturally want a cheaper, faster, and more feature-rich trading environment. Fractal is perfectly positioned to meet this demand directly, providing an improved trading experience while maintaining familiarity and compatibility with the Bitcoin ecosystem that these users are accustomed to.

This built-in user base gives Fractal a significant advantage over other Layer 2 solutions and new blockchain platforms, which often face the "cold start" problem, the challenge of attracting an initial user base and establishing network effects from scratch. By leveraging the existing user base, Fractal may bypass the barriers to early adoption.

In addition, Fractal's strategy regarding growth metrics also sets it apart from many other blockchain projects. While many Layer 2 solutions and new blockchains consider Total Value Locked ### TVL ( as a core metric, Fractal plans to use transaction volume as its North Star metric. This strategy aligns with its built-in user base, which is likely to generate a significant number of transactions as these users interact with existing assets on a more efficient platform.

By focusing on trading volume rather than TVL, Fractal is able to showcase real usage and adoption, which may be more attractive to users and investors in the long run. This strategy also allows Fractal to stand out among many projects that focus on TVL numbers as their competitive edge.

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4. Ecosystem Construction

Fractal's ecosystem development strategy is dedicated to decentralized and community-driven growth. This section outlines the strategies Fractal employs to build a robust and diverse ecosystem.

) 4.1 Decentralization Concept

The core of the Fractal ecosystem construction is a firm commitment to decentralization. This concept is reflected in several key aspects:

• Diversified cross-chain bridge solutions: Unlike certain Layer 2 solutions that rely on a single official bridge, Fractal encourages the use of various cross-chain bridging methods between the mainnet and its network. This approach reduces the risk of single points of failure and fosters innovation in cross-chain interactions.

• Open Development Environment: Fractal does not impose specific development frameworks or methods, allowing developers to innovate freely within the ecosystem.

• Community-driven governance: The direction of the ecosystem is mainly determined by community input and initiatives, rather than unilaterally decided by central authoritative institutions.

• Distributed Infrastructure: Fractal promotes the development of distributed infrastructure, encouraging multi-party participation.