Goat Network launched its public beta on Thursday, the first zero-knowledge rollup built directly into Bitcoin, claiming it can generate encrypted proofs in under three seconds.
The deployment (BitVM2 beta) aims to tackle Bitcoin’s long-standing performance issues, including slow transactional finality and the lack of unnominated yield options for scalable Bitcoin.
“Layer 2 transactions are fast, but meaningless without equally fast evidence to finalize the Bitcoin mainnet,” said co-founder and CEO Kevin Liu. Decryption. “If the proof is delayed, it creates inefficiency and security risks.”
Layer 2 solutions are secondary protocols built on blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which handle transactions to reduce congestion, charges, and speed up, relying on the underlying chains for security and final payments.
Zero-knowledge proof, or ZK proof, allows someone to see information blocks, such as transactions, without revealing the underlying data. Although common in Ethereum-based systems, implementing ZK proof natively in Bitcoin has created a sudden technical challenge.
Goat Network began in 2023 as a zero knowledge research project. In 2024, we shifted our focus to Bitcoin, allowing the ZK Prover infrastructure to run within the network’s more limited scripted environment.
That new testnet uses a distributed system of GPU-driven nodes in parallel that handles blocks, aggregation, and GROTH16 proofs. According to the goat, this setup eliminates bottlenecks and allows for close-in-the-instant withdrawal.
Goat Network is one of several teams building a zero recognition solution in Bitcoin. Other projects will be built on Bitcoino, Starkware, L2 repetition, Citrus and Bitcoin (Bob).
Liu said that goat architecture will resolve directly to Bitcoin, Liu is different from projects that claim bitcoin compatibility during operations on the sidechain.
“All transactions occur on a Layer 2 network, but eventually they settle on Bitcoin,” he said. “In the event of a dispute, Bitcoin Miners is responsible for verifying them. The bridge operates without an intermediary and ensures that external parties do not manage their user assets.”
These factors – Vitocoin settlement, miner verification, unreliable bridges, said that it defines what makes Bitcoin Layer 2 legal.
“Nearly every bitcoin holder we’ve talked about – large and small – is not willing to sell their bitcoin to get it,” Liu said.
Yields from gas fees paid in Goat Layer 2 Bitcoin will wager Bitcoin on a decentralized sequencer node (entities that handle rollup transactions) and earn a share of the fees generated.
Liu said the security of the system is built on three layers: It is a distributed sequencer to prevent a single point of failure, an unreliable bridge with an optimistic challenge process that detects and punishes invalid withdrawals, and a ZK proof that only works when transactions are enabled.
“If a malicious node changes a transaction, the proof will not pass,” he said.
Liu has acknowledged the skepticism that the Bitcoin community may have about the new Bitcoin Layer 2, and has pledged to revolutionize the number one blockchain network. He believes timing is different.
“This is the Bitcoin opening moment,” Liu said, referring to Ethereum Layer 2’s optimism. “Now, technology works. It’s time to prove that.”
The BITVM2 ZK rollup will be open to the public by the end of the year.
