What Bitcoin Still Can’t Fix?

The team behind one of the most impressive projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem - RGB - is planning to launch a new L1 blockchain called Prime. This was revealed in a research paper by RGB lead developer Maxim Orlovsky.

It’s an unexpected move from people who have spent years working to improve Bitcoin itself. RGB is a major breakthrough: it brings client-side validated smart contracts to Bitcoin. Imagine a smart contract that doesn’t live on the blockchain but instead runs directly on the devices of the parties who agreed to it. No dependence on miners, no risk of a 51% attack, no blockchain-specific vulnerabilities - everything happens only on your devices. That’s RGB. After six years of work, it was finally released just recently. And almost immediately, its developers announced they would be building a new L1 for it.

It seems that even a long-time Bitcoin advocate has found a fundamental limitation that can’t be fixed within Bitcoin itself.

People have pointed out Bitcoin’s shortcomings for years, but most of the big ones have been addressed:

• High fees - solved in the Lightning Network
• Slow transactions - solved there as well
• Lack of privacy - also improved in the same way
• Risk of losing funds to a dishonest seller - solvable through escrow services

What still remains:

• The high cost of entering the mining business (something Monero solved — arguably its main advantage over Bitcoin today)
• Limited block space for everyone who might need it (which is exactly why we need other blockchains - and cross-chain swaps, which we offer at the best rates on rabbit.io)

It’ll be interesting to watch Prime’s development and see which Bitcoin limitations it aims to overcome.