OP_NET, a smart contract protocol that embeds execution directly into standard Bitcoin transactions, activated on Bitcoin Layer 1 (L1) today, March 19. The execution layer brings with it a live DeFi stack that includes a decentralized exchange (DEX), token issuance, and yield farming, without leaving Bitcoin mainnet via bridges or wrapped assets, per a press release shared with The Defiant.
The co-founder of OP_NET, Chad Master, told The Defiant that, unlike Bitcoin Layer 2 (L2) chains or “metaprotocols,” OP_Net operates as a “deterministic execution layer that runs directly on Bitcoin as it exists today - no soft fork, no hard fork, no new opcodes, no separate chain, no separate token.”
Contract bytecode, parameters, and execution state are encoded inside Tapscript and confirmed by Bitcoin miners. Every node independently re-executes transactions and verifies consensus through a checksum root embedded in normal user transactions. The result is smart contracts whose state is anchored to Bitcoin's settlement layer, with BTC as the only gas asset.
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