TL;DR
- Bitcoin developers unite in the newly formed Layer 1 Foundation to collaborate on formalizing the underlying standard for BRC-20 fungible tokens.
- The foundation includes key participants such as Hiro, Alex Labs, Oyl Dynamics, Allium Labs, and UTXO Management. Unisat and Best in Slot will jointly lead the maintenance of the BRC-20 protocol.
- Layer 1 Foundation sets goals such as simplicity in technical architecture, a security-focused approach, fostering mutual discussions, and considering community input when making developmental changes.
The growing popularity of Bitcoin Ordinals and the issuance of new memecoins on the world’s leading blockchain have led a group of BTC developers to collaborate in formally establishing the underlying standard for BRC-20 fungible tokens. The coalition, known as the newly created Layer 1 Foundation, announced its new governing body, focusing on ensuring trust and transparency around the protocol, deeming it essential for future growth.
Isabel Foxen Duke, Vice President of Layer 1 Foundation, mentioned that they invited major BRC-20 indexers to become partners and publicly commit to operating within a specific standard of procedure and governance resolution that they drafted. The foundation involves various stakeholders, including Hiro, Alex Labs, Oyl Dynamics, Allium Labs, and UTXO Management. Unisat, a Bitcoin wallet developer, and Best in Slot, an Ordinals aggregator, will jointly lead the maintenance of the BRC-20 protocol.
The Layer 1 Foundation (L1F), founded by BRC20 Creator @domodata and friends, is excited to announce its organization of a new BRC20 governance structure—including the appointment of several leading BRC20 indexers as collaborators.
Over the past months, it’s become clear that… pic.twitter.com/GDZxMelYkg
— Layer 1 Foundation (@L1Fxyz) March 11, 2024
In the foundation’s resolution, members commit to pursuing goals such as simplicity in technical architecture, a security-focused approach when making changes to the protocol or its indexers, promoting mutual discussions, and considering the community when implementing changes in development. They also pledge to make protocol-level changes open-source.
Seeking to Avoid BRC-20 Hardforks
The public backing of members for this framework aims to prevent conflicts and the threat of a hardfork of the BRC-20 protocol. If one of the members were to decide on a hardfork of the BRC-20, Foxen Duke clarified that it would happen openly, referring to changes in the blockchain that are not backward compatible and require everyone on the network to update their software.
In January, the BRC-20 community had disagreements about implementing the Jubilee update for Bitcoin Ordinals, which, according to Domo, the creator of the BRC20 standard, could affect how BRC-20 tokens are indexed. Despite the possibility of a hardfork, Lorenzo, founder of Unisat Wallet, stated that it was not the plan and that the intention is to protect protocol users and prioritize their needs over those of a single developer.
Layer 1 Foundation aims to establish clear and collaborative guidelines for the BRC-20 standard, with the goal of preventing conflicts and maintaining the integrity and transparency of the protocol in the future, always prioritizing the needs of users.
