Blockchain developers are set to fork the BRC-20 token standard to bring decentralized financial capabilities to the Bitcoin network.
Mikael.btc, a blockchain developer who is best known for creating the BRC-100 token standard, is looking to fork BRC-20 in order to launch a new protocol designed to bring decentralized finance to the Bitcoin (BTC) network.
In a post published on X on August 9, the developers outlined their plans for the fork, emphasizing that the upgrade would address key limitations of the BRC-20 standard, including “lack of programmability,” scalability issues, and the absence of defi infrastructure.
According to Mikael.btc, the new protocol will enhance the functionality of Bitcoin and give users access to decentralized finance by leveraging technologies such as Inscriptions, which are used to add metadata to Bitcoin sats, and OP_RETURN, a script that can store data within a transaction.
“All BRC-20 tokens will be mapped to a BRC-100 token with the same ticker and same supply. 100% of the new BRC-100 tokens will be distributed to original BRC-20 token holders in exactly the same amount as their BRC-20 holdings.”
michael.btc
The developers added that holders of BRC-20 tokens will automatically receive the equivalent asset on the BRC-100 protocol following the fork. However, holders of BRC-20 tokens on centralized exchanges will have to wait until the exchanges distribute the new forked asset.
The push for DeFi on the Bitcoin network gained momentum after a recent research report by cryptocurrency venture capital firm Pantera Capital predicted that a Bitcoin-based DeFi ecosystem could attract hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity via the Web3 protocol. This means that Bitcoin’s DeFi sector could achieve market share similar to that of Ethereum.