The post Delving into Bitcoin’s Evolution as a Programmable Powerhouse appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

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&nbsp When Bitcoin first emerged, it was hailed as a peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic cash system providing decentralized means of sending value. Furthermore, for more than a decade following its launch, it largely functioned as digital gold and an alternative payment network, with most innovation happening on other blockchains.  However, Bitcoin is undergoing a major renaissance, with a wave of new protocols now leveraging the network for smart contracts, DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and even data storage.  For instance, during 2024, Bitcoin-based DeFi apps saw their total value locked (TVL) surge 22-fold, from roughly $307 million in January to over $6.5 billion by year’s end. This 2,000% explosion, which outpaced even Bitcoin’s price gains by a huge margin, marked a breakout year for “BTCFi” and hinted at how much untapped utility was being unlocked. The story was similar on the NFT front as developers found ways to inscribe data atop the Bitcoin blockchain (via the Ordinals protocol). The response was overwhelming, as by April 2024, over 65 million inscriptions (i.e., in less than 15 months) had generated nearly $458 million in fees for miners. Total inscription count on the Bitcoin network (source: Dune Analytics) Even more crucially perhaps, Bitcoin’s ecosystem continued to expand its support for complex applications (once thought to be impossible on the base layer), with different sidechains (such as Rootstock and Stacks) introducing Ethereum-like smart contract capabilities to the network — thus paving the way for lending protocols, decentralized exchanges and more. Advertisement

&nbsp At the same time, developers have also been embedding cryptographic proofs into Bitcoin blocks to secure off-chain records as well as timestamp important information.  In short, BTC’s role has expanded from being digital cash to a multi-purpose platform capable of securing assets, running dApps, and much more (all while being…

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Filed under: News - @ June 25, 2025 11:27 am