Summary

This article reviews the technological evolution of BTC scaling over the past 10 years, summarizing past limitations and constraints. Both on-chain native and off-chain computation extensions have solved some problems but also introduced more complexity and security issues. For example, block coloring technology is lightweight but has limited scalability and still carries the risk of block pollution. BTC L2 greatly enriches computational functions and throughput but relies on on-chain contract verification capabilities and maps second-layer assets, which significantly reduces the security of the entire network protocol.

Building on this history, this article first attempts to describe BTC's abstract state transition mechanism, including the state machine, data structures, and computation verification modules, and presents the current constraints of each module. Based on this, it analyzes two different extension approaches: on-chain refactoring and off-chain co-processing.

The on-chain native refactoring extension approach primarily focuses on precisely analyzing the current performance and scalability constraints of BTC and improving and resolving these issues through redesigned architecture. It introduces a state data module to enhance on-chain query capabilities and reconstructs the underlying data engine based on the concept of Hybrid Transactional and Analytical Processing (HTAP) to improve data read and write performance, thereby supporting the execution of more complex OP codes. The breakthrough of this refactoring approach lies in starting from the underlying structure of BTC, identifying the core reasons that restrict performance, and attempting to address these factors to enhance scalability under the premise of security.

The off-chain co-processing architecture is mainly based on the idea of secure outsourced computation and protocol processing. It keeps the core security of assets on the BTC chain, only outsourcing the computation to a co-processing network, and verifying the correctness and integrity of the co-processing network through cryptography and state logs. Compared to the design ideas of sidechains and L2, account state operations and computation extensions are decoupled. This architecture’s account states remain on the BTC chain, with more focus on the security of outsourced computation.

In the long run, on-chain native refactoring is the most secure and fundamental path for improvement, but the complexity of architectural design and multi-party interest game is also the highest. Off-chain co-processing is an intermediate transitional state that can bring about the expansion of BTC application scenarios under suitable circumstances.

As the initiator of this article, State Lab always adheres to the spirit of open source and community, and will continue to promote the improvement of BTC scalability