Bitcoin Gets Native DeFi Stack as OP_NET Goes Live on Mainnet

OP_NET, a smart contract protocol that embeds execution directly into standard Bitcoin transactions, activates 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, permissionless smart contract deployment, 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. Every OPNet transaction is a real Bitcoin transaction.”

The result, as Master explained, is decentralized applications whose state is anchored to Bitcoin's settlement layer, with BTC as the only gas asset.

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