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Bitcoin Developer and Security Pioneer Launch L2 Hemi Network to Unify Ethereum and Bitcoin

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Sead Fadilpašić

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Sead Fadilpašić

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Sead specializes in writing factual and informative articles to help the public navigate the ever-changing world of crypto. He has extensive experience in the blockchain industry, where he has served...

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Last updated:

July 24, 2024

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Hemi Labs

has announced its Hemi Network, a modular layer-2 (L2) blockchain network that aims to deliver “superior” scaling, security, and interoperability between Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The network will launch at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, this month.

Its creators stated that they are not approaching the two networks that “drive the blockchain ecosystem” – Bitcoin and Ethereum – as siloed ecosystems.

Attempts to integrate and scale these two massive networks “have tended to address the problem within their respective communities, resulting in a fractured ecosystem.”

Rather, Hemi views Bitcoin and Ethereum as components of a single, larger supernetwork.

“This surfaces the best capabilities of both networks and, in turn, enables a new class of previously unattainable blockchain applications,” the team argued.

Hemi Labs was co-founded by early Bitcoin core developer Jeff Garzik and blockchain security pioneer Max Sanchez.

Meanwhile, Hemi’s incentivized testnet and referral program are already available.

The Leaderboard and Miles program will start in a week.

The points program participants earn ‘Miles’ and “gain recognition for tasks that support everything from Hemi’s growth to overall development and improvement,” the announcement said.

Led by renowned early Bitcoin developer @jgarzik and blockchain security pioneer @MaxwellSanchezX, the Hemi Network reimagines how we will scale, extend, and build the future of Web3.

2/13

— Hemi Network (@hemi_xyz) July 24, 2024

New PoP Consensus Protocol ‘Exceeds’ Bitcoin’s Security

According to the press release, Sanchez is the principal developer behind Hemi’s method for inheriting Bitcoin’s security characteristics, the Proof-of-Proof (PoP) consensus protocol.

This novel feature uses “and exceeds” Bitcoin’s security, in addition to Bitcoin/Ethereum interoperability technologies, to deliver trust-critical decentralized finance (DeFi) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Furthermore, its creators noted some of the key benefits of the new Hemi Network.

The first one is unifying Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Hemi Virtual Machine (hVM) integrates a full Bitcoin node within an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Therefore, developers get to utilize the power of both chains via familiar tools.

Also, it maintains full backwards compatibility with EVM smart contracts, auditors, and Ethereum wallets.

Another benefit is Bitcoin programmability. Smart-contract developers building with the Hemi Bitcoin Kit (hBK) gain direct access to highly granular views of Bitcoin’s state via the hVM.

“This unlocks applications such as Bitcoin (re)staking, Bitcoin-enabled lending markets, and democratized Bitcoin MEV marketplaces,” the team stated.

Hemi also enables superfinality. It achieves “better-than-Bitcoin finality,” aka “superfinality,” in a few hours.

Also, PoP’s modular nature enables Hemi to extend this security efficiently to other blockchains, the team said.

Additionally, Hemi enables trustless cross-chain portability — a Bitcoin-secured conduit for securely moving assets between chains via Tunnels, as well as asset programmability, which includes on-chain routing, time-lock, and password-protect.

The team noted that gasless transfer “enables asset movement without requiring any native chain currency, regardless of the presence of a Web3 wallet.”

https://twitter.com/hemi_xyz/status/1815788493802778952