Analyzing Botanix: The First Fully Decentralized EVM-Equivalent L2 on Bitcoin
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Analyzing Botanix: The First Fully Decentralized EVM-Equivalent L2 on Bitcoin
Botanix is fully equivalent to the EVM; anything that runs on the EVM can be copied and pasted directly onto Botanix.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: AYLO
Translation: TechFlow
Botanix is a Bitcoin Layer 2 that's fully EVM-equivalent. They currently have a fully functional product live on testnet, and I believe this will be one of the most exciting Bitcoin-related launches of the year.
I spoke with Willem Schroe, founder of Botanix Labs, to learn more and better understand his vision for a Bitcoin Layer 2.
I’ll also include some resources at the end. As mentioned, they have a testnet that’s already live. I highly recommend checking it out. It’s always good to try things early—you never know what might happen down the line.
After speaking with Willem, I decided to invest in Botanix Labs—I was deeply impressed.
Summary
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Botanix Labs is building the first fully decentralized EVM-equivalent Layer 2 on Bitcoin, where the ease of use and versatility of the EVM meets Bitcoin’s decentralization and security.
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Leveraging Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) as the foundational settlement and decentralized Layer 1, Botanix will use a Proof-of-Stake consensus model, where stakes—represented by Bitcoin—are securely stored on Spiderchain, a distributed network protected by decentralized multi-signatures managed by random subsets of participants. You'll be able to stake your Bitcoin directly on Bitcoin.
Tell us about yourself and how you founded Botanix?
I grew up in Belgium and eventually became the national math champion there. Later, I completed both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. Belgium actually has a strong reputation in cryptography, so my master’s focused specifically on that field. I ended up researching authenticated encryption and even successfully cracked several cryptographic algorithms. At the time, I didn’t realize how cryptography would eventually tie back into my career.
After finishing school, I worked in the chemical industry for six years, then moved to Saudi Arabia for two years. It was in the Middle East—especially seeing Lebanon’s hyperinflation—that I truly grasped the importance of cryptocurrency. That experience motivated me to apply to Harvard Business School, which became my entry point into the U.S.
At Harvard, I wrote my thesis on what would become Botanix. Since then, our core thesis hasn’t changed. About a year and a half ago, I wanted to understand where crypto infrastructure was heading. Interestingly, after 15 years, theories about infrastructure continue evolving. But ours is straightforward: we see Bitcoin as a purely decentralized, secure form of money with almost no built-in utility. So you have this massive pool of dormant capital, just waiting for something to be built on top of it.
However, everyone knows building on Bitcoin is extremely difficult—an issue widely recognized. Meanwhile, outside of Bitcoin, there’s an abundance of utility and applications, many of which have achieved product-market fit and created tremendous value.
I realized all of this is built on what are essentially virtual machines—software layers that follow the same principles as software technology. And I saw that the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is by far the most prominent and widely distributed. In the battle of software technologies, distribution has always been key. Think of Windows in the 1980s—it wasn’t the best or most secure technology, but it had the broadest distribution.
In the war of software technologies, distribution wins. So while Bitcoin may lead as a form of money, the EVM is the winning virtual machine. This sparked the idea of a Bitcoin Layer 2—which is what sets us apart. The idea was conceived a year and a half ago, and we spent the first six months diving deep into cryptography to develop a fully decentralized Layer 2 on Bitcoin, which we call Spiderchain. Spiderchain is the technology that enables building a Layer 2.
We’ve received a lot of positive feedback and praise from the Bitcoin community. We began building and emerged from stealth in September, launched our public testnet in November, and are now preparing for mainnet. I believe we’re the only company that has truly delivered a fully end-to-end working product.
Can you briefly explain how Botanix works?
We are fully EVM-equivalent, meaning anything running on the EVM can be copied and pasted directly onto Botanix—the entire system is built on top of Bitcoin. Once you connect your MetaMask, you generate a Bitcoin deposit address. It looks like a regular Bitcoin address, but it’s actually a special type of Taproot address where we encode your EVM address.
This means that from now on, this Bitcoin address is uniquely tied to the EVM address generated in your MetaMask. We did this because we studied what Stacks and Rootstock did—and the mistakes they made. We want to make entering a Bitcoin Layer 2 as simple as possible. So moving Bitcoin from Bitcoin to Botanix should feel just as seamless as bridging from Ethereum to a Layer 2 like Arbitrum.
Example from the testnet
So essentially, through this address, you can now send Bitcoin directly from Coinbase, Kraken, or any exchange to this Bitcoin deposit address—and then you’ll have Bitcoin available in your MetaMask. From that point forward, it feels exactly like Ethereum, except you’re doing everything using Bitcoin.
Who do you think Botanix will attract—users from Ethereum Layer 2s or native Bitcoin users?
I think the answer is a bit of both. In crypto, people often compare Bitcoin and Ethereum, aligning themselves ideologically with one or the other. Some prefer Bitcoin because it represents fully decentralized money, which matters most to them. Others lean toward Ethereum, prioritizing utility. However, I believe there’s appeal on both sides.
I know many Bitcoin holders actually want to put their Bitcoin to work and earn yield on it—but right now, there’s no real way to do that. I know many want to trade on a truly permanent decentralized exchange using their Bitcoin, but there’s no native access on Bitcoin. So this basically allows any application that has achieved product-market fit on Ethereum to also achieve it on Bitcoin. I’ve long believed that even Bitcoin users are still human—they behave similarly to others. So anything that has achieved product-market fit on Ethereum could do the same on Bitcoin; it’s just lacked the infrastructure to make it possible.
I think ordinals and BRC-20 prove that many Bitcoin holders are actually degen—they want to participate in various activities, but currently nothing exists for them. I’ve observed that over the past few months, during our large-scale business development efforts, from a developer’s perspective: if you're an Ethereum DApp choosing between deploying on Arbitrum or Ethereum, you’re competing fiercely for the same users and capital. By contrast, deploying on Botanix gives you the chance to be a pioneer across the entire Bitcoin market—capturing all those Bitcoin holders who want to do something meaningful with their assets.
I believe around 70% of the users or capital will come from native Bitcoin holders, while the rest will come from Ethereum.
Are developers also interested in building native applications on Botanix?
Bitzy DEX
The Bitzy team is building a brand-new DEX, using a V2-style frontend but powered by a V3 aggregator backend—logically similar to Ethereum DEXs. The Vertex team is building the next-generation perpetual contracts DEX app, improving upon existing proven models. Other well-known perpetual DEXs are also considering deployment.
The Palladium team will announce a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, which in itself is a massive application. Many have tried to create a stablecoin on Bitcoin, but none have succeeded yet. On Ethereum, the largest use case for wrapped Bitcoin is essentially having a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin—like MakerDAO with DAI. But achieving a native, decentralized implementation directly on Bitcoin makes even more sense. So Palladium is stepping into the space of having a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin natively on Bitcoin.
Then there’s a whole range of different lending protocols. The most obvious use cases on Bitcoin are those that have already achieved product-market fit on Ethereum. Some teams are exploring unique Bitcoin-specific areas like mining hash power. Others are interested in building DEXs, which may better align with Bitcoin holders’ broader interests. But for the most part, it’s about bringing applications that have already found success on Ethereum over to Bitcoin.
Will people be able to use BRC-20 tokens on Botanix?
As you probably know, the current user experience for BRC-20 is extremely poor. With Botanix, you’ll be able to bridge your Bitcoin from the base layer to Botanix’s Layer 2, and suddenly gain access to fast block times, enabling quick trading on DEXs, participation in protocols, and full access to the complete ERC-20 DeFi ecosystem.
Are you aiming to compete with high-throughput chains, or carving out your own niche?
Great question. The answer is no. The game-changer here is that we’re providing infrastructure on Bitcoin. In fact, Spiderchain is designed more like Ethereum. We’re capable of supporting 10,000 to 100,000 distinct full nodes—anyone can join the network, stake Bitcoin, and run a full node. This is especially appealing to Bitcoin holders who prioritize decentralization.
That’s the real game-changer. The blockchain trilemma suggests that pursuing massive throughput inherently limits decentralization. Our Layer 2 on Botanix follows Ethereum’s vision—requiring more hardware, but still operating at 9–10 second block times—while achieving a high degree of decentralization. Our vision prioritizes decentralization over extreme throughput. We believe this is one of the main reasons we’ve gained significant support within the Bitcoin community. Our strong stance on decentralization resonates deeply in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
What about fees on Botanix?
Fees will be very low. Current rollups are essentially quite centralized, leading to various issues and higher costs. To ensure censorship resistance, liveness, and unilateral withdrawals, they need to push data back to Layer 1, increasing Layer 2 costs. In contrast, we’re fully decentralized—anyone can run a full node—which solves these problems. As a result, our Layer 2 fees will be extremely low. We may not achieve massive speed, but our fees will remain minimal because we don’t have to send data back to the Bitcoin main chain, which would be prohibitively expensive.
What about speed?
Botanix is optimized to perform similarly to Ethereum. In terms of the blockchain trilemma and speed, we’re fundamentally like Ethereum. However, we can also build a third layer—or even a semi 2.5 layer—directly anchored to Bitcoin as the base layer, achieving much higher speeds. Then, the EVM would act as a data availability layer. Spiderchain essentially decentralizes Bitcoin down to its foundation. It’s similar in design to EigenLayer, but built on Bitcoin—allowing us to guarantee very fast rollups. That’s our long-term vision. From there, you could achieve Solana-like or even faster upgrades—all on Bitcoin.
How large do you estimate the “sleeping capital” on the Bitcoin network to be?
The basic idea is that Bitcoin’s total market cap is roughly three to four times that of Ethereum. Early statistics also suggest that the scale of ordinals and BRC-20 is about three times the size of the NFT market we saw during Ethereum’s initial boom.
We also believe the DeFi market on Bitcoin could be three times larger than that on Ethereum. Considering that a significant portion of Bitcoin is held in ETFs, long-term wallets, and about 20% of hardcore maximalists who refuse to use their Bitcoin for anything, we estimate roughly 30% of the supply remains active and open for use. When you consider Bitcoin as a trillion-dollar asset, that opens up a potential DeFi market easily reaching $100 billion.
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