As a full-time researcher of Bitcoin Season 2, Bitcoin Layers co-founder Yah-Noosh (Janus) is becoming cynical: “It’s all a massive shitcoin casino.”

Janus sat down with me for an hour in person to discuss how his research group compares and rates the swell of Bitcoin L2s now entering the fray, ranging from lightning, to rollups, to federated sidechains. As emerging BitVM and ZK-based layers fight to gain traction while remaining decentralized, he later argued why such projects will inevitably launch tokens as a reality of doing business.

• https://x.com/januszg_
• https://x.com/bitcoinlayers

TIMESTAMPS:

-

01:59 How Janus entered the Bitcoin L2 conversation

04:36 Bitcoin L2 builders learned from Ethereum

07:52 What is a “rollup”?

08:47 Stacks doesn’t count as a rollup

09:40 What is a Bitcoin Layer 2?

12:00 Trusted sidechains are still useful

13:15 Advantage of rollups over lightning network

15:58 Lightning is one of few trustless L2s

17:10 Shielded CSV: a potential lighting alternative

18:40 Coupling shielded CSV with rollups

20:37 Rollups alone have limited scale

22:08 Non-payment use cases for Bitcoin

24:30 Shitcoin casinos are coming to rollups

27:09 ICP and Arch: how they work

29:50 Multisigs are “the best we can do” today

31:04 How Bitcoin Layers reviews Bitcoin L2s

35:40 Trust assumption of BOB network

37:12 The biggest multisig hack that ever happened

38:14 SolvBTC: bitcoin derivatives on derivatives

40:29 Will BitVM-based bridging really gain traction?

42:39 “It’s all a massive shitcoin casino”

44:42 The inside pump and dump game of Bitcoin Season 2

46:20 Are utility tokens necessary for Bitcoin L2s?

48:43 What is a rollup sequencer?

50:33 The need for decentralized sequencers

52:40 Decentralizing the sequencer using tokens!

55:38 All the Bitcoin L2s are gonna launch tokens

57:30 An option to bypass the token game

EPISODE SPONSORS:

› Best in Slot -- https://bestinslot.xyz/

LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST:

› YouTube: / @bitcoinrails

› X/Twitter: https://x.com/isabelfoxenduke

› Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5uPrBxvD691TpTqjijudkO?si=571634b88d574911

CONNECT WITH ISABEL:

› Email: [email protected]

› LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabel-foxen-duke-87272423/

› X/Twitter: https://x.com/isabelfoxenduke

Bitcoin #Ordinals #BRC20 #Runes #BitVM #zkp