Digital Gold to Programmable Money

Botanix Labs, the company Painter co-founded alongside Willem Schroé, is looking to change that mindset. On July 1 it launched the Botanix mainnet with the aim to transforming bitcoin from digital gold into programmable money that can power a full financial ecosystem.

She emphasized that up until now, the growth of decentralized and on-chain finance over the last five years has largely bypassed the bitcoin world:

“We really think that if we’re building a net-new global financial ecosystem on bitcoin, it should be on bitcoin and not on any other crypto. It’s more of a philosophical and ideological argument, but we think that bitcoiners deserve DeFi and they deserve finance that’s on bitcoin and not on any other chain.”

The Botanix blockchain looks to empower bitcoiners by bringing smart contract functionality directly to the $2 trillion bitcoin network without compromising on core principles. The Botanix Labs team claims that the network is the first fully-decentralized bitcoin Layer 2 that is also Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible, meaning that it can support smart contracts originally created to be run on Ethereum.

Enter the Spiderchain

Security is always a key consideration when introducing any new product to bitcoin’s battle-heartened community. For Botanix, the unlocking innovation is the “Spiderchain,” a novel cryptographic primitive that enables bitcoin scaling while maintaining full decentralization.

While communicating this innovative security model to the community has been a challenge, Painter said that even the most diehard hodl-ers are growing more comfortable with the concept:

“That’s been probably the most challenging piece but also the most rewarding because we’re seeing bitcoiners who’ve never done anything with their bitcoin finally putting it on-chain, and that’s exciting. It takes a lot to get a bitcoiner to un-hodl their bitcoin and actually put it to work.”

While other similar bitcoin onchain finance solutions rely on bridges to other blockchains that pose security risks, Botanix operates entirely within the bitcoin ecosystem – minimizing the risk of funds lost due to bridge hacks and reliance on centralized custodians.

To ensure full decentralization of the network from the outset, governance of Botanix has been formally shifted away from Botanix Labs to an independent federation of 16 independent node operators, including Fireblocks, Galaxy, Alchemy, Kiln, XBTO, Antpool and others. There are plans to expand this federation to 100 operators by 2026.

In a statement, Botanix Labs co-founder Schroé elaborated:

“We’ve spent the last two years building Botanix to give bitcoin real utility without compromising on self-custody. Too many bitcoiners have been burned by centralized platforms, which is why Botanix is fully decentralized at launch. No single party, including us, can touch a user’s bitcoin.”

Instant Real World Utility

The Botanix mainnet launch brings with it more than 40 new applications going live simultaneously, affording users the ability to trade, borrow, lend, stake, and provide liquidity to earn bitcoin native yield.

These applications include major protocols like the perpetuals decentralized exchange GMX and the Dolomite lending protocol, as well as bitcoin-native applications like Arch, Rover, Bitzy and Palladium, the world’s first bitcoin-backed stablecoin.

Why the emphasis on yield generation? Because hardcore bitcoiners don’t want to sell their coins, Painter explains. Rather, they want to use them as collateral to borrow against.

The team emphasizes that users of these applications will see a significantly improved user experience compared to bitcoin mainnet – namely five second block times on Botanix compared to 10 minutes on bitcoin – with average transaction fees of just $0.02.

While some factions argue that bringing programmability and related features to bitcoin is a diversion from its original vision and a potential security threat, Painter argues that bringing increased utility is essential for driving new adoption:

“Imagine you being able to earn 5% yield on your bitcoin just by holding it. That’s going to rewire your brain to be constantly thinking ‘How do I get more? How do I earn more on my bitcoin instead of just having it sit there?’”

Bitcoin Programmability Key to Emerging Markets

For Painter, the launch represents more than just technological achievement. Rather, it’s about fulfilling bitcoin’s original promise as peer-to-peer electronic cash while addressing the financial inclusion challenges that first drew her to the space.

Her journey into Bitcoin began in 2015 while living in Brazil, where she encountered the same financial pain points that she had witnessed across other parts of the world: limited banking access, volatile national currencies, and barriers to moving money globally.

She saw how bitcoin could provide a pristine asset to populations who otherwise have no such access to something of such quality.

Furthermore, she emphasized that programmability and usability of bitcoin is critical to unlocking its full potential in underserved parts of the world:

“If bitcoin is to be money, if bitcoin is to be used interchangeably in all of these countries, you need a lot more than just buying, selling, holding. You need to be able to pay with your bitcoin, you need to be able to earn interest on your bitcoin, you need to be able to create a bitcoin bond, you need to have bitcoin-backed treasuries, bitcoin-backed stablecoins.”