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Robin Linus shook up the crypto development landscape in October 2023 with a whitepaper presenting a theoretical method for making Bitcoin more programmable . "BitVM," as it was known, was followed by a second iteration, "BitVM2" , in August 2024, revealing improvements that could bring the concept closer to implementation.

The introduction of BitVM by Linus, a core contributor at ZeroSync Association, a Swiss non-profit organization based in the canton of Zug, was hailed as a breakthrough because it didn’t require any changes to Bitcoin's code. Just the publication of Linus's original design for BitVM helped to inspire a fervor for building projects on Bitcoin.

The aim of BitVM2 is to enable a rollup — essentially a separate auxiliary network built atop Bitcoin — that can handle faster and cheaper transactions, but without compromising the network's security. This could then allow a bridge that could be used to securely transfer BTC to the rollup, and later bring the BTC back so that deposits can be withdrawn.

Linus' work is providing the foundations for some of the most notable ventures in the Bitcoin development sector, such as Rootstock's "BitVMX" project, and hybrid Bitcoin and Ethereum layer-2 BOB ("Build on Bitcoin"), which aims to make the original blockchain network the center of the DeFi universe.

This profile is part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year's nominees, click here [ INSERT LINK BEFORE PUBLISHING ].