Mikael, the creator of the BRC-100 protocol stack and the Runes State Machine (RSM), has some exciting news. He announced the successful activation of the BRC-20 hard fork. This is a big deal as it marks the first Meta-Protocol Fork led by the BRC-100 protocol. It’s now live on the Bitcoin mainnet at block height 859,490.
If you hold BRC-20 tokens, you now have a chance to receive forked assets within the BRC-100 protocol. You can view and trade these assets on the inBRC marketplace or the 100Swap decentralized exchange (DEX).
For most BRC-20 holders, funds should have been automatically allocated. However, if you’re using different wallets—like those on centralized exchanges (CEXs) or Layer 2 solutions—there might be a waiting period. These platforms often take their time to process asset allocations.
The goal of this upgrade is to fix some existing issues with BRC-20. These include a lack of programmability, non-Turing completeness, limited scalability, and no decentralized finance (DeFi) options. This update is expected to breathe new life into BRC-20 by activating it and integrating it with the new protocol. Plus, the forked assets you receive will allow you to participate in all DeFi applications within the BRC-100 ecosystem.
It’s important to understand that this hard fork enhances BRC-20 but isn’t compatible with the original version. The upgrade introduces programmability and DeFi features through the verified technologies of the BRC-100 protocol.
So, what exactly is the BRC-100 protocol? It functions as an extensible decentralized computing protocol based on Ordinals Theory. It can be further developed to support decentralized applications (dApps) on the Bitcoin network.
This protocol uses a modular approach, allowing for inheritance and nesting. This means it provides a solid foundation for expanding both the protocol itself and its applications. It defines a token that has computing capabilities and state transitions, enhancing the functionality of the BRC-20 protocol. You can even boost computing power and state transitions through the BRC-100 extension protocol.