According to Lightning Labs, Taproot Assets will allow developers to turn Bitcoin into a multi-asset network with guaranteed scalability.
Lightning Labs, a Bitcoin layer-2 developer, recently launched the Taproot Assets protocol on the main network. This protocol enables the issuance of stablecoins and other assets on Bitcoin and Lightning.
According to Ryan Gentry, Director of Development at Lightning Labs, the release of Taproot Assets marks the dawn of a new era for Bitcoin. It not only makes it a scalable multi-asset network but also preserves its core essence.
Announcing the first mainnet release of Taproot Assets 🥕, a protocol for assets on #bitcoin and Lightning.
With this release, developers can issue financial assets on-chain in a scalable manner. 💱
Today marks a new era of multi-asset bitcoin. 🌅https://t.co/2cNvZSvv8v
— Lightning Labs⚡️🍠 (@lightning) October 18, 2023
Walking to blockchain’s future
Lightning Labs aims to facilitate foreign exchange transactions through the Lightning network. The company states that a significant portion of the requests they receive from developers is related to the ability to integrate stablecoins into their applications.
The challenge for Taproot Assets lies in meeting this demand while simultaneously avoiding network congestion in Bitcoin, similar to the congestion caused by the minting of BRC-20 tokens via the Ordinals protocol earlier this year.
Lightning emphasizes the significant improvements that come with this version of Taproot. These will be reflected in the issuance and redemption APIs, asynchronous receipt, Multiverse mode, and developer scalability, security, and experience.
The challenge for Taproot Assets lies in meeting this demand while simultaneously avoiding network congestion in Bitcoin, similar to the congestion caused by the minting of BRC-20 tokens via the Orinals protocol earlier this year.
Taproot represents a decisive step in the development of digital assets. The enhancements introduced in the latest version provide the robustness that developers need to work on the creation and issuance of stablecoins and continue driving widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies..
Bitcoin developers now can envision a future where stablecoins are issued on the Bitcoin network. This advancement also enables foreign exchange transactions to be settled instantly via the Lightning Network. Transactions involving Taproot Assets within the Lightning Network will smoothly route through the existing Bitcoin liquidity. This will allow routing nodes to forward them without any modifications, further expanding the influence of the global Bitcoin network and enhancing its security.
This is the path towards establishing Bitcoin as the global routing network for the Internet of money, effectively tokenizing the dollar and the world’s financial assets.
