Exploring the Emerging Bitcoin Ecosystem: Is Fractal Innovation or Just Following the Trend?

Recently, with the heated discussions triggered by Fractal, the market's focus has shifted back to the Bitcoin ecosystem. The related assets and gameplay launched by Fractal have attracted a large number of users to participate, resulting in high on-chain gas fees. The significant hype around Fractal can be attributed to the following reasons:

First, the current market is generally sluggish and lacks fresh hotspots. Second, Unisat's generous airdrop of Pizza has led many users to pay great attention to the launch of Fractal. During the testnet phase, extreme competition emerged, with an estimated over 1 million addresses participating in testnet tasks in hopes of receiving airdrop rewards. Finally, the high return effect brought by asset protocols such as Cat20 has further increased the popularity of Fractal as the profit effect continues to ferment.

In addition, Unisat's official hunger marketing strategy has played a role in boosting the momentum. Originally, the circulation of the airdropped FB was very small, but as on-chain competition intensified, the price of FB skyrocketed, becoming a kind of "golden shovel" to some extent, indirectly accelerating the development of Fractal.

Based on the above reasons, an in-depth analysis of Fractal is particularly necessary.

Fractal Overview: Bitcoin Native Scalability Solution

Fractal is a Bitcoin scalability solution that recursively extends based on the Bitcoin Core code. It is designed as a second layer network or sidechain for Bitcoin, serving as a native extension to Bitcoin's first layer network. Fractal aims to enhance transaction efficiency by accelerating block production speed and increasing block capacity while maintaining compatibility with the Bitcoin mainnet.

Users can trade on the Fractal network, and these trades can then interact or synchronize with the Bitcoin mainnet. Fractal offers faster transaction confirmation times of about 30 seconds per block and a larger block capacity that is 20 times that of the Bitcoin mainnet.

As a native expansion solution, Fractal can initiate secure asset transfers across layers starting from the Bitcoin main chain. Assets such as Bitcoin, BRC-20, and Ordinals can be bridged through a decentralized bridge. The underlying mechanism employs a rotating MPC signature mechanism with dynamic replacement, taking into account the specific aspects of the BRC-20 standard.

Fractal functions more like a testnet for Bitcoin, supporting features that have not yet been activated on the mainnet. It can be seen as a testing ground that offers better user experience and performance optimization. This is very suitable for experimenting and innovating complex applications. At the same time, it allows users to get involved and provide feedback in a real interactive environment, similar to the significance of EVM layer2 for Ethereum.

Financing Background: Strong Cooperation to Promote Development

Fractal Network is developed in collaboration by UniSat and Block Space Force. As the main developer and promoter, UniSat is a leading Bitcoin wallet with over 900,000 active users weekly. UniSat has secured five rounds of undisclosed funding, with two rounds led by OKX and another trading platform, with participation from Waterdrip Capital, ABCDE Capital, and others.

Block Space Force is a crypto-native fund, with a portfolio that includes well-known projects such as Babylon, Pendle, and Aevo. The fund has decades of experience in dollar A9 exits, hundredfold investment projects, and developing the most widely used blockchain applications globally.

Overall, among the two project parties, UniSat's resources are more prominent. Through its successful brand building and the generous Pizza airdrop in the past, UniSat has attracted a large number of loyal users, becoming the strongest endorsement for Fractal.

With the resource support of both project parties, Fractal implemented a series of strategic plans to initiate user and developer participation. After the mainnet launch, Fractal distributed 1 million FB tokens to over 100,000 eligible addresses and launched multiple developer resource funding programs, demonstrating Fractal's ambition for ecosystem development.

Highlights of Fractal

The main highlights of Fractal lie in the performance optimization and improvement based on the Bitcoin mainnet, as well as the introduction of related asset issuance methods and ecological applications. It can be vividly said that Fractal is a "new wine" in a "old bottle" of the Bitcoin mainnet resources, showcasing a brand new asset issuance method. Specifically:

1. Performance Improvement: Fractal offers faster transaction confirmation times of about 30 seconds per block and a larger block capacity that is 20 times that of the Bitcoin mainnet.

2. Mainnet Compatibility: Fully compatible with the Bitcoin mainnet, users can conduct transactions on the Fractal network, which can then interact or sync with the Bitcoin mainnet.

3. Asset Bridging: Bitcoin and assets such as BRC-20 and Ordinals can be bridged through decentralized bridges.

4. Innovation Space: As an experimental ground, Fractal provides early support for some features that have not yet been activated on the mainnet, offering space for experimentation and innovation for complex applications.

5. User Participation: Allow users to provide feedback in a real interaction environment, similar to the significance of EVM layer2 to Ethereum.

Technical Implementation Path

( Multi-layer expansion mechanism

Fractal enhances Bitcoin transaction speed through recursive expansion layers. It establishes multiple levels of expansion layers on the Bitcoin main chain, forming a tree-like structure. This design allows each layer to further fork, increasing the network's parallel processing capabilities. Each layer can independently process transactions and dynamically adjust the number of layers as needed. During peak transaction times, it can quickly increase the levels to handle more transactions, allowing the network to flexibly respond to various loads.

This mechanism is like being able to build countless highways parallel to the Bitcoin mainnet. Each road can be used to expand the Bitcoin mainnet or to expand another road. In this way, each road has its own unique value orientation, and users can solve congestion issues without the need to change their mode of transport.

) Cadence Mining( Cadence Mining)

Fractal uses the same PoW consensus mechanism as Bitcoin, which means Bitcoin miners can seamlessly transition to Fractal block mining using existing ASICs, GPUs, and other hardware. This amounts to killing two birds with one stone, increasing efficiency by sharing the workload and providing additional economic benefits to Bitcoin miners.

Fractal's mining method is divided into permissionless mining and merged mining. Out of every three blocks, two are generated through permissionless mining, and one through merged mining. Permissionless mining allows anyone to participate in the network by downloading software and running a node. Merged mining is specifically aimed at Bitcoin miners, allowing them to mine Bitcoin blocks and Fractal blocks simultaneously without requiring additional computing power.

( OP_CAT

OP_CAT is an opcode in the Bitcoin scripting language, originally used for concatenating two elements into a string. In 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto removed it for security and memory usage considerations. Fractal reintroduced OP_CAT, which brought more development possibilities to the Bitcoin ecosystem, such as on-chain applications, smart contracts, and more. The benefit of OP_CAT lies in its ability to build more complex and trustless Bitcoin infrastructure, which is crucial for achieving advanced transaction conditions and functionalities.

![Exploring the new darling of BTC: Is Fractal an ecological revolution or a follower?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-1686b51d2ee16e9d7c7eac350063e6b8.webp(

Fractal Tokenomics

The Fractal mainnet mainly consumes two types of tokens: $FB as the general gas, and $SATS as the exclusive gas for pizzaswap.

$FB has a total issuance of 210 million coins, distributed as follows:

• 50% for PoW mining, Bitcoin miners can directly mine $FB.
• 15% as the ecosystem treasury for investing in and supporting Fractal ecosystem projects. A maximum of 10% of the total amount can be used each year over a period of 10 years.
• 15% allocated to core contributors for building and maintaining the Fractal core software. All tokens are locked for 7 months and will be released linearly over 12 months.
• 10% for community subsidies, establishing partnerships and liquidity programs. Up to 10% of the total amount can be used each year for 10 years.
• 5% for presale, targeting early investors and network participants. All tokens are locked for 7 months and released linearly over 12 months.
• 5% allocated to advisors to provide strategic advice and support for the project. Up to 20% of the total amount can be used each year for 5 years.

The official stance on whether users participating in the testnet will receive airdrop rewards has not yet been clearly stated. If there is an airdrop, it may be allocated from community subsidies or the ecosystem treasury.

In order to ensure transparency, the official has published the following address, where users can track the use of funds:

• Ecosystem Treasury (15%): bc1pukzhdkdghqajp3zvwkx65e7uv5zma6lzalet4xauf3p5c0vdg8wqk2avv6
• Community Grant (10%): bc1pdrqk5xv3tfpmdsuegnt5a63xucf475r3l0vqg6zulwmtzezg7h6sd2pqx3
• Pre-sale (5%): bc1put2rhzx0cwz552epm25dt2rexg2tzx9sws2sjcezsjm9y7h7ct8svhpzf2
• Advisor (5%): bc1pm2h0420vmgayhzs59d5nf0mzjlf3q6vrnlpqytefe3rk6a8ku3zq59walm
• Main Contributors (15%): bc1ppvqe8ugt27kgw4trvnzjvcfzn52702tq2ahe7cgzw0jsv67vrhysvgnndz

![Exploring the new darling of BTC: Is Fractal an ecological revolution or a follower?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-171113404f3dd01032f937984fa6c8c2.webp###

Fractal Ecosystem Overview

CAT 20

The CAT 20 protocol is currently the hottest ecological project of Fractal, released by CAT Protocol on September 11, with a total supply of 21 million coins. Although the project's information is unclear and there may be risks, the community sentiment and promotion by major opinion leaders have led to a large influx of users participating in minting, causing the Gas fees on the Fractal chain to soar, reaching nearly 7000 at its peak. This hype also pushed the FB token to be speculated at a price of 40U.

The main innovation of the CAT 20 protocol lies in the use of the OP_CAT opcode, which perfectly fits into the Fractal ecosystem. Its modular and programmable minting provides flexible and composable rules for complex decentralized applications such as AMM, lending, and staking. Another notable feature is that transactions are fully verified by miners, reducing reliance on indexers, which makes the protocol itself less susceptible to inconsistencies or manipulation by indexers.

Currently, a certain wallet claims to be researching the CAT20 trading market, with official resources support coming soon. However, the official social media account of the CAT20 protocol has been suddenly frozen, adding some uncertainty. Since the protocol is still in its early stages, there are many issues regarding its feasibility that need to be discussed further, requiring more attention to its specific planning and performance.

BTCTerminal

BTCTerminal has a high level of attention on social media. It was originally an infrastructure provider for the Runes protocol, and later decided to rename itself to BtcTerminal and integrate into the Fractal ecosystem. Currently, BTCTerminal has launched a comprehensive trading market for the Fractal ecosystem, supporting the query of minting progress,