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A new research paper titled “BitVM: Compute Anything on Bitcoin” proposes a novel method for executing complex computations and smart contracts on the Bitcoin network. The paper — published on Oct. 9 — suggests that users verify Bitcoin (BTC) computations without executing them on -chain . This is done using a prover-verifier model, where the prover claims the result of a calculation, and the verifier can check if the claim is valid. The prover first compiles the program into a large binary circuit of logic gates to achieve this. They commit to this circuit bit-by-bit using cryptographic commitments in a Taproot address. The verifier can then query the prover to reveal certain parts of the circuit and check if they are consistent. The paper shows that by using cleverly constructed “challenge-response” transactions signed by both parties, the verifier can detect any false claims by the prover through a series of binary searches. This allows arbitrary compu...

The proposal for MATIC’s technical upgrade is subject to approval from the Polygon community. Once approved, MATIC’s upgrade to a multipurpose token will result in its renaming to POL. Ethereum layer 2 development firm Polygon proposed upgrading its in-house MATIC (MATIC) token into a multipurpose token that can be used to validate multiple chain s. The proposal for MATIC’s technical upgrade is subject to approval from the Polygon community. Once approved, MATIC’s upgrade to a multipurpose token will result in its renaming to POL. According to the announcement shared with Cointelegraph, POL’s utility will span all the Polygon protocols, which includes Polygon PoS, zkEVM and Supernets. Sharing details about the anticipated upgrade, the announcement read: “Primarily, it enables the pool of protocol participants, i.e. actors to scale to support thousands of Polygon chains without sacrificing security.” The utility of POL revolves around validators, with the goal of aligning and i...