Guests:

- Benny, Founder of TAP Protocol

- Jan, CEO of XVerse

- Sam Jenkins, Head of BD at Bitfinity

Top 3 Key Takeaways from Our Guests

1. Bitcoin sidechains have helped bootstrap the development of the ecosystem

The roundtable started with the speakers telling us why the ecosystem took so long to gain traction. They all concurred that the growth of the Bitcoin ecosystem was fueled by projects building on top of Bitcoin, like Bitcoin sidechains and meta-protocols (e.g., Lightning Network, Liquid), and how this has helped bootstrap development by providing more programmability and capabilities compared to base layer Bitcoin. This has attracted builders and capital and changed the culture to be more open to innovation without compromising Bitcoin's core principles.


2. Bitcoin has a strong rooted culture, which is both its strength and weakness

The speakers discussed Bitcoin's slow adoption and development, attributing it to its technical limitations as an older blockchain and resistance from some community members who have previously dismissed new ideas. They noted that although Bitcoin has a strong and established ecosystem, the culture within the community has been resistant to change, leading to a lag in innovation. However, new technologies and the Ordinals trend in 2023 have helped overcome these barriers and fuel more rapid growth in the future.

3. Developers will need to simplify and upgrade tools for future mass adoption

In the future, the speakers agreed that it will be up to current developers and builders in the Bitcoin ecosystem to create a simplified environment that meets the needs of users and future builders. They emphasized the importance of user experience and the need to simplify tools for developers to build applications, making them less technically complex for mainstream users while supporting power users and customizability. They also recommended learning from the best practices of other blockchains that have been developing applications for longer to continue improving the user experience on Bitcoin applications.