Fractal Bitcoin: A New Sidechain Enters the Scaling Wars

Builders and technical members of the Bitcoin community are torn about Fractal Bitcoin, the latest sidechain to enter the scaling wars. Some call it a misleading affinity, while others are grateful it allows them to try out experimental scripts like OP_CAT.

Builders and technical members of the Bitcoin community are torn about Fractal Bitcoin, the latest sidechain to enter the scaling wars. Some call it a misleading affinity, while others are grateful it allows them to try out experimental scripts like OP_CAT.

Which one is it?

“We love it,” said Punk3700, one of the main developers building the Bitcoin Virtual Machine. “Fractal is the perfect chain for builders to experiment with OP_CAT,” he told The Defiant. “It has a good hashrate and a young but strong user base.”

Although the Satoshi-era script still hasn’t passed the rigorous consensus process in Bitcoin, Punk3700 is optimistic, and his team is testing out apps with the north star being that it gets added into Bitcoin’s stack. “Once Bitcoin activates OP_CAT, we can continue building on Bitcoin, which gives us a massive advantage as a builder,” he said, referring to Fractal.

According to OKX, Fractal Bitcoin has more than 2.7 million active addresses, and the project continues to hold roughly one-third of Bitcoin’s hashrate through its merge mining.

Another builder acknowledges the allure of a protocol that has activated OP_CAT. Willem Schroé, founder and CEO of Layer 2 protocol Botanix Labs, told The Defiant that one interesting aspect of Fractal’s fork of Bitcoin is that it has activated OP_CAT, which can showcase its potential applications as the Bitcoin Core community continues discussing it.

However, it’s not all rosy when it comes to Fractal – despite builders enjoying the much-needed room for experimentation.

Tokenomics & Lack of Bridge

“I have some concerns about Fractal,” Schroé said.

There is no bridge or peg-in and peg-out mechanism from Bitcoin to Fractal, which means it acts more like a new Layer 1 fork with its own token. “This means that calling it a sidechain or Layer 2 is nothing more than riding on the wave of the hype around a few Layer 2s that are actually building on Bitcoin,” he said.

Schroé also pointed out something that has been extensively voiced in regards to Fractal: the 50% pre-mine. He said that “considering the large pre-mine for a new L1 significantly distracts from any legitimate effort for a technological innovation.”

His assessment resonates with that of Bitcoin Magazine’s technical editor, the pseudonymous Shinobi, who wrote a scathing article ripping into the project.

‘Clown Show’

According to Shinobi, Fractal's “whole ‘design’ is a clown show designed to pump bags for pre-mine holders.”

One of Shinobi's main causes of concern is Fractal's native token. Not only is it issued independently of Bitcoin, but it also came with a 50% pre-mine – which had already caused an uproar when first announced.

Additionally, Shinobi highlights the lack of a peg mechanism for moving actual BTC into the “sidechain.”

“One of the core aspects of a sidechain is the ability to peg, or “lock,” your bitcoin from the mainchain and move it into a sidechain system so that you can make use of it there,” he wrote, which is something Fractal doesn't offer at the moment.

Lastly, Shinobi attacked the project's “cadence” mining, which he called a “poisonous incentive structure.”

According to the technical editor, it essentially “tries to associate itself with the Bitcoin network calling itself a ‘merge mined system’ when in reality two-thirds of the block production mandates turning hashrate away from securing the Bitcoin network and devoting it exclusively to securing Fractal Bitcoin.”

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