GOAT Network launches GOAT BitVM2 testnet

The Bitcoin native zkRollup project GOAT Network today announced the official launch of the GOAT BitVM2 Testnet V3, a test network that uses Bitcoin as the final arbiter layer, aiming to enable BTC to participate in real financial activities without relying on custodians, committees, or multi-signature trust assumptions.

For a long time, Bitcoin has been viewed as a "store of value" rather than a widely usable financial asset. Despite BTC having a holder base worth trillions of dollars, users often have to relinquish control to third-party institutions or rely on implicit assumptions like majority honesty when it comes to cross-chain, yield, trading, or other financial activities.

GOAT Network aims to address this core contradiction:
When the system encounters issues, does Bitcoin itself have the ability to verify complex off-chain computations?

The Key Challenge of BTCFi: Can Bitcoin Become the Final Arbiter?

Most "Bitcoin L2" or BTCFi solutions currently on the market still rely on one of the following structures:

• Custodial or multi-signature bridges: Asset control is concentrated in a group of signers.

• Committee or majority honesty assumptions: System security relies on participants being continuously online and honest.

• Cross-chain settlement: Final disputes are resolved on a blockchain outside of Bitcoin.

These solutions can work when the system is operating normally, but in extreme cases such as attacks, outages, or governance conflicts, Bitcoin itself cannot unilaterally enforce exits or rulings.

"The Bitcoin Layer 2 market hasn't really started yet. So far, the so-called 'Bitcoin L2' is essentially still sidechains or custodial bridges. They lack permissionless exit mechanisms and the ability to enforce dispute resolution by Bitcoin's mainnet, which is a prerequisite for BTCFi to gain long-term trust."

— Kevin Liu, Core Contributor of GOAT Network

BitVM2: Enabling Bitcoin to Participate in Rulings Without Upgrading Protocols

Due to Bitcoin's minimalist underlying design and lack of a general-purpose smart contract execution environment, "native Bitcoin Rollup" has long been considered difficult to achieve.

The breakthrough of BitVM2 lies in its provision of a path for enforcing correctness for Bitcoin. It utilizes only Bitcoin's existing primitives, including pre-signed transactions, one-time signatures, and taproot, to construct a challengeable execution mechanism that allows for the initiation of challenges against malicious or fraudulent proofs, ultimately being enforced to results executed by Bitcoin's consensus rules.

On this basis, GOAT Network has advanced BitVM2 from theory to system-level implementation, expanding it into a complete, verifiable native Bitcoin zkRollup architecture.

Testnet V3 is the public testing environment for GOAT Network's native Bitcoin zkRollup tech stack, featuring the following core characteristics:

• Layer 2 execution is completed off-chain, with correctness guaranteed by zkVM-based zero-knowledge validity proofs.

• Layer 2 sorting results are anchored on Bitcoin.

• Withdrawals and disputes are ultimately adjudicated by Bitcoin's mainnet rules.

• Anyone can participate in challenges or validations, rather than relying on a single operator.

This means:
When the system runs smoothly, the user experience is close to that of a high-performance L2; when issues arise, Bitcoin still retains the final say.

What Has GOAT Done to Make BitVM2 Truly "Run"?

Building on the theoretical design of BitVM2, GOAT Network has filled in several key capabilities for real deployment scenarios:

1. Bitcoin-anchored Sorting and Historical Consistency

Merely proving "a certain state is valid" is not enough. GOAT anchors sorting results on Bitcoin and binds withdrawals to that history, preventing operators from submitting alternative forks at the exit boundary.

2. Withdrawal Mechanism that Works Like Real Currency

The system supports withdrawals of any amount, completed through atomic paths and block header chain verification, without relying on complex user-side operational processes.

3. Economically Executable Dispute Path (BitVM2-GC)

If the challenge mechanism is too costly, it will fail in reality. GOAT introduces a solution based on Garbled Circuit and Designated Verifier SNARK (DV-SNARK), reducing the amount of fraud-proof data that needs to be on-chain in the worst-case scenario by about 1000 times, making challenges executable within realistic cost ranges.

4. Security Model Based on 1-of-n Honesty Assumptions

Through role rotation and on-chain collateral management, it avoids the system degrading into implicit trust of a few online participants over long-term operation.

In addition to the core mechanisms of BitVM2, GOAT Network has also built a complete system-level capability, forming a comprehensive native Bitcoin zkRollup technical solution, including:

• Type-1 zkEVM execution environment: Fully equivalent to Ethereum, reducing development and migration costs.

• Decentralized Sequencer architecture: Reducing single points of trust and censorship risk from an architectural perspective.

• Self-developed zkVM (Ziren) proof engine: Completed audits, used to generate execution validity proofs.

Why Is This Testnet Significant?

The GOAT BitVM2 Testnet is not just an ordinary product release, but a public validation phase for system-level security assumptions:

• For users: The first experience of BTC usage and withdrawal paths guaranteed by Bitcoin rules.

• For developers: Deploying complete EVM applications on native Bitcoin zkRollup, running Operator or Challenger nodes, participating in the optimistic challenge process of BitVM.

• For the industry: Publicly answering the core question of "Can Bitcoin really support a trustworthy financial system?"

The GOAT BitVM2 Testnet is now live and open for public testing. This is also the last phase before the mainnet launch of GOAT Network, allowing all key assumptions to undergo real-world validation.

About GOAT Network

GOAT Network is building a native Bitcoin zkRollup architecture, aiming to enable BTC to flow, generate yields, and participate in real economic activities without sacrificing Bitcoin's security model.

V3 Testnet: https://bitvm2-testnet4.goat.network/bridge-in

GOAT BitVM2 Whitepaper: https://www.goat.network/bitvm2-whitepaper
Official Website: goat.network