Conversation with Jeff, Founder of Bitmap Tech: Focus on Doing Your Own Job Well and Serving the Project's Target Users Is Key
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Conversation with Jeff, Founder of Bitmap Tech: Focus on Doing Your Own Job Well and Serving the Project's Target Users Is Key
Exploring new possibilities for Bitcoin, pushing forward in asset protocols and scaling solutions.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Fred, Ryze Labs
1. Introduction
Welcome to Ryze Up by Ryze Labs. Ryze Labs bridges the East and West, aiming to accelerate Web3 development in emerging markets and influence the global Web3 landscape. Local Insights, Global Impact—let’s embark on this journey together. Time to Ryze Up.
Ryze Labs has successfully invested in high-growth potential projects such as Polygon, Sui, Solana, LayerZero, and Wintermute.
Host of this episode: Joven, Business Development Director at Ryze Labs, focused on expanding the fund's presence within global developer communities and providing strategic guidance to portfolio companies.
Guest: Jeff, Founder of Bitmap tech. Bitmap tech is dedicated to building new asset protocols and scaling solutions within the Bitcoin ecosystem, including the BRC420 asset protocol, the Bitcoin Layer2 Merlin Chain, the metaverse project Bitmap.Game, and the Recursiverse recursive protocol.
2. Drawn In by DMT Theory: Building Bitmap Tech
Before founding Bitmap tech, Jeff had spent over a decade as an entrepreneur in the Web2 industry. Although he had always followed the blockchain space, he never felt compelled to launch a venture in Web3—until 2023, when he saw the emergence of Ordinals and the BTC ecosystem. During May and June of that year, when the market still held biases against inscriptions, he decided to begin building across the entire Bitcoin ecosystem.
Many people often confuse Bitmap tech with Bitmap. In reality, Bitmap was invented by Blockamoto, while Bitmap tech is a deep builder on top of Bitmap. The decision to build on Bitmap was driven by the DMT (Digital Meta Theory), which proposes that all content is digitally generated—each block can represent an avatar, a song, or even a small world—with data stored permanently and immutably.
Bitmap represented the most exciting asset related to this concept, so they chose to build upon it.
3. Core Advantages of BRC420
The BRC420 protocol introduced by the Bitmap tech team is theoretically complex but exceptionally powerful and innovative in practice.
It offers two key advantages:
First, unlike NFTs on Ethereum that store their assets on centralized cloud servers such as AWS or Alibaba Cloud, BRC420 assets are stored directly on-chain, enabling tamper-proof and permanent storage.
Second, open-source and perpetual existence enable composability. All innovation builds on prior work—blockbuster games like League of Legends or Counter-Strike evolved from earlier ideas. By engraving all content into inscriptions, future creators can reference and build upon previous works through citation and secondary innovation.
In essence, BRC420 centers on modularizing content and turning those modules into assets. Game mechanics, characters, music—all can be inscribed as individual modules. For example, 1,000 inscriptions could each become a module, combinable into a final composite product that can then be tokenized. Owning the resulting token makes a user not only a stakeholder in the project but also grants access rights to the content and positions them as a potential builder.
Thus, BRC420 opens vast possibilities—music, games, and virtually any form of creative work can be modularized and transformed into assets, offering immense opportunities for entrepreneurs and developers alike.
4. Pandora, BRC420, and the Token-Image Duality
Regarding the recently popular ERC404-based "token-image duality" concept seen in Pandora, Jeff notes that this idea was originally proposed by the Bitmap tech team. After its introduction, many other projects began exploring similar directions. However, the fundamental difference between BRC420 and projects like Pandora lies in focus: standards like ERC404 primarily emphasize financial dimensions, aiming to enhance liquidity between tokens and images. In contrast, Bitmap tech focuses on utility—for instance, Bitmap assets can serve as land in a metaverse; owning land provides space, and so forth. Utility comes first—the financial derivatives naturally follow.
The reason Bitmap tech launched the “Blue Box” early on was because every asset protocol needs a first token—just as Domo introduced Ordi when launching BRC20. Rather than leaving the creation of the first token to market speculation, the protocol developers themselves launched the initial token, named BRC420—commonly known as the Blue Box.
Moreover, since the project’s earliest supporters and hardcore followers tend to be thoughtful and influential individuals, their involvement helped drive the project into broader awareness. As the project gained visibility and value increased, these OG community members naturally contributed more—explaining concepts, spreading awareness, and strengthening the ecosystem.
Since the launch of the BRC420 protocol, over 1,000 derivative projects have emerged, leading to unexpected innovations such as Blue Crystal and Music Box.
5. Merlin Chain’s Community Success Through Transparency
The motivation behind creating Merlin Chain stemmed from the realization that many needs related to metaverses, autonomous worlds, and finance cannot be fulfilled on Bitcoin Layer1—making Bitcoin scaling essential.
Currently, most technical approaches for Bitcoin Layer2 solutions are quite similar. Merlin has not publicly disclosed its technical design because, due to the chain’s popularity, the team’s time and energy have been fully devoted to resolving network congestion and improving user experience. Many other Layer2 teams emphasize technical details precisely because their mainnets haven’t launched yet.
The core reason for Merlin’s community success lies in transparency. In every public interview and Twitter Space, the team expresses genuine views—such as explaining why they refer to themselves as a Layer2, especially after noticing weaker projects with similar technology also claiming Layer2 status. This honesty fosters strong community trust.
Second, to avoid compromising fairness through marketing incentives, the project adopted zero marketing expenses. Much of the promotion on YouTube, podcasts, and Twitter happens organically, driven by genuine believers. This has cultivated a sense of shared belief and spiritual symbolism around the project.
Third, compared to projects that entered later merely to capitalize on Bitcoin’s ecosystem momentum, the community is more willing to support teams like Merlin that started building from the very beginning and are now reaping the rewards of their early efforts.
Why do many Western inscription enthusiasts favor Merlin? Because Bitcoin’s primary allocation has already taken place over years, but inscriptions are just getting started. Merlin’s empowerment of inscriptions has attracted many Western users. Additionally, yield generation on Bitcoin holdings is a critical need for large BTC holders. Merlin Chain effectively satisfies both demands—one key reason behind its explosive growth.
6. Focus on Serving Target Users
Regarding future competition among Bitcoin Layer2s, Jeff believes the key is to stay focused—do your own work well and serve your target users effectively. The ecosystem will naturally attract potential builders to co-create.
Merlin currently manages three funds: a liquidity fund to support secondary markets across the ecosystem and applications; an ecosystem fund for investing in projects; and the Merlin token, with a portion reserved for builders and early development teams.
Currently, Bitmap tech’s work on recursive protocols, BRC420, and Merlin is largely driven by market demand. On one hand, the team doesn’t want to abandon existing users and products; on the other, they aim to tackle larger technological challenges and broader use cases—so they’re committed to doing everything possible to meet these evolving demands.
7. Conclusion
Looking ahead, the team hopes to welcome more talented developers. Merlin has already drawn in significant retail participation and valuable assets—how to best utilize these assets and serve users remains a top priority.
The Bitcoin ecosystem remains in a very early stage. The team urges all developers, investors, and participants to avoid short-termism. Instead, focus should be on laying solid foundations and fostering healthy, sustainable growth—building the Bitcoin ecosystem together, step by step.
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