Bitcoin is one of the leading and most popular cryptocurrencies in the world. Over the years it has maintained a dominance in the crypto markets. With the rapid growth of cryptocurrency, developers have sought out many ways to increase scalability and solve any breaches affecting the blockchain. Advanced and innovative blockchain technologies have arisen due to the evolution of the Web3 ecosystem. Merlin Chain is one such innovative technology that emerged to enhance and resolve the existing challenges of the Bitcoin network. This article aims to introduce Merlin Chain and its working mechanisms.
What is Merlin Chain?
Merlin Chain is a layer 2 solution or protocol that focuses on increasing scalability and resolving issues concerning the Bitcoin network. The team behind Merlin Chain aims to enhance and empower Bitcoin. For this purpose, the layer 2 network offers decentralized oracle networks, ZK-Rollup technology, and many other advanced features to improve scalability and enable much faster transactions.
Merlin Chain has gained significance within the Bitcoin ecosystem for lending support to Bitcoin native protocols and it is also compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) which is an added benefit. Jeff Yin is the founding figure behind Merlin Chain who developed the component with many other efficient developers.
How does the Merlin Chain work?
The Merlin Chain uses advanced features and technologies to carry out the essential functions within the Bitcoin blockchain. The major goals of the chain include minimizing transaction costs and offering high-speed transactions. It uses zkEVM and EVM compatibility solution that enables zero-knowledge proofs. The operators of the ZK rollup or the sequencer nodes then generate these proofs.
The nodes play an important role in collecting a large number of transactions and storing them in a compressed data block. Then they send this data to the Bitcoin base layer through the Oracle network. The Oracle network plays the important role of verifying the data received by the nodes. This happens in a secure process. The ZK rollup helps cut the transaction costs by compressing the data and the Oracle network verifies the transaction data received thus increasing the security. These advanced features help the Chain to accelerate more transactions and resolve any issues concerning the Bitcoin network.
Key Features of the Merlin Chain
ZK Rollup
The ZK-Rollup is one of the most important features offered by the Merlin Chain. It plays a pivotal role in minimizing transaction fees and enhancing the Bitcoin network. ZK-Rollup uses zero-knowledge proofs and significantly minimizes large-sized transaction data into a compressed form. This way it helps the Bitcoin network by reducing the extra computational load and solving issues like network congestion. ZK-Rollup is an essential feature that helps in enhancing the speed and efficiency of the main Bitcoin network.
Decentralized Oracle Network (DON)
The Decentralized Oracle Network verifies and processes the data received from the nodes. The nodes operating on the Oracle network send the data into the blockchain in a secure manner. The data stored on DON can be verified by the users using zero-knowledge proofs. The major goal of the Oracle network is to maintain the integrity and security of the Bitcoin network. The network also uses a security mechanism to detect any illicit or fraudulent activities surrounding the transaction.
On-Chain BTC Fraud-Proof Mechanism
The on-chain BTC fraud-roof mechanism protects the network from any fraudulent activities. The mechanism contains two parties called prover and challenger. If the challenger suspects any transaction to be fraudulent, then the prover has to provide proof that confirms the integrity of the data and proves that it is correct.
The role of Merlin Chain in enhancing the Bitcoin network
Improving Scalability: Scalability is one of the common issues faced by most of the blockchain networks. The issue of scalability often poses a barrier to investors as well. Merlin Chain is a layer 2 solution that works towards eliminating the Bitcoin network’s concern regarding scalability. The features of Merlin Chain increase the transactions and resolve network congestions thus contributing to the scalability enhancement of the Bitcoin network.
Cost Reduction: The major goal of Merlin Chain also lies in reducing the transaction costs of the Bitcoin network. Merlin Chain helps the network by reducing the larger amount of data and thus relieving the heavy load residing on the Bitcoin network. This helps the Bitcoin network to provide much lower transaction fees for the users.
Increases Bitcoin’s interoperability: As a layer 2 solution, Merlin Chain helps Bitcoin maintain and increase interoperability with other blockchain networks. This gives users a chance to integrate with many decentralized applications.
The Bottom Line
Merlin Chain can be considered as an advanced solution to enhance the efficiency and working of the Bitcoin network. It has already set its foot to become a leader in the Bitcoin layer 2 ecosystem with its advanced features. Merlin Chain has gained widespread attention over th years by attracting more users to the Bitcoin network.