Introducing OP_NET: A Smart Contract Meta-Protocol Aligned with Bitcoin

Author: Bob Bodily Source: X, @BobBodily Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

OP_NET: Bitcoin-aligned smart contract meta-protocol, everything you need to know.

1. This is a Bitcoin-based meta-protocol similar to Ordinals, BRC-20, Runes, Counterparty, etc.

2. You can bridge Bitcoin into the meta-protocol (is this the first time we see Bitcoin bridged to the meta-protocol itself?). Use a multi-signature bridge (authority proof provided by the OP_NET node).

3. The OP_NET node (i.e. the meta-protocol indexer) has a WASM virtual machine, so you can execute WASM smart contracts in the indexer (supporting languages ​​such as Assembly Script, Rust, Python, TypeScript, etc.).

4. You need to burn Bitcoin (330 Satoshis) as a fee to transact on the meta-protocol (have we seen a meta-protocol that uses the Bitcoin mainchain as a fee?), (what do people think about burning Bitcoin?).

5. You deploy WASM smart contracts by compressing the code using ZLIB and storing it directly in a Bitcoin transaction (using a script path spend, not in an Ordinals envelope, they have their own envelope structure). This process also generates an unspendable address for users to interact with.

6. You interact with these smart contracts by sending 330 Satoshis (the smallest possible amount due to dust limits) to the unspendable address associated with the smart contract script path spend (effectively burning these Bitcoins).

7. Unlike UTXO-based meta-protocols (like Runes or some BRC-20) or Satoshi-based meta-protocols (like Ordinals), OP_NET uses an account-based model (more similar to how Ethereum handles token accounts).

8. OP_NET is very different from other meta-protocols in that it does not sort meta-protocol transactions in the order they are included in a block. Instead, transactions in a block are sorted based on the OP_NET transaction fee (execution fee + priority fee). So your transaction may be executed first, but if I paid a higher OP_NET transaction fee, my transaction will be included first in the meta-protocol.

9. If a user pays more than 0.0025 bitcoin in OP_NET transaction fees, the excess goes to support the OP_NET node network (i.e., meta-protocol indexers) and is not burned.

Bob's point

The whitepaper is great. The terminology and descriptions used are very accurate. "A smart contract meta-protocol aligned with Bitcoin" is a perfect way to describe OP_NET. High praise must be given to real communication. And the whitepaper generally avoids jargon and is easy to read and understand.

Bridging Bitcoin into a meta-protocol is technically possible in any meta-protocol, but this is the first time I've heard of it actually happening.

Using the Bitcoin mainchain for fees is completely new. Haven't seen this in other meta-protocols before. Not sure how I feel about burning Bitcoin, but it's certainly aligned with Bitcoin.

It adds WASM-based smart contract functionality to the meta-protocol (similar to BRC-20 2.0 or ProtoRunes, etc.), which provides a lot of flexibility for meta-protocol computations.

Overall, this is a very good (and novel) interpretation of the meta-protocol. Will be interesting to see how developments here go.