For years, developers have tried to rectify that intentional design flaw in various ways. They built Bitcoin “Layer 2” networks, such as Lightning, designed to scale Bitcoin for applications like payments. Some have proven to be unreliable, and so-called bridges — software infrastructure to move tokens between networks — have been prone to hacks, making many users hesitant to use them.
After the long-anticipated launch of US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January, and the once-every-four-years software update called the “halving” last month, the big question on a lot of crypto investors’ minds has been, what will power the largest cryptocurrency’s next rally?
A slew of developers think they have the answer: adding programmability to the Bitcoin blockchain. Today, Bitcoin is viewed by many as digital gold — a token you hold for appreciation, but can’t do much else with. While you can use its biggest rival, Ether, to swap coins and earn yield on the Ethereum network, the Bitcoin blockchain lacks the ability to easily support apps via so-called smart-contract functionality that allows for features such as self-executing agreements stored on the blockchain.
