The “ambitions” of CKB and RGB++

Author: DaPangDun, independent researcher Source: mirror

Is it silent?

When the RGB++ protocol was first launched, the market was very hot, and many people were discussing the impact of such a new technical protocol. The first use case of the "isomorphic binding" technology proposed by RGB++ combined the BTC network and the CKB network, which also triggered people's new understanding of the CKB network and had new expectations for its future development. But after a period of time, as the heat slowly dissipated, it seemed to be silent.

But, is it really silent?

Focus on your attention

"Attention economy" is a term that is often mentioned nowadays, and projects on the market are trying to grab users' attention. However, attention is a "short-term process" in most cases, and it is easy to disperse and divert. This is the current situation of the market, so most of us are drifting with the tide, constantly pursuing "market hot spots", a few have gained profits, and most have gained losses and anxiety.

I have always believed that if you want to pay attention to a certain track/project, you need to track it and adjust your cognition for a long time. This cycle does not need to be so exaggerated in years, but at least it is calculated in months. Because technology development, development, and application take time, it will not appear out of thin air, and it will not even be accelerated because of the large number of people. I have been investigating every track/project I like with this concept, so you will see that it has been almost a year since I preached RGB, but I still keep updating the protocol, ecological projects, etc., and the same is true for RGB++.

The value generated by sustained attention is often greater, because it is based on a deeper understanding of cognition, which is rational cognition. The principle is very similar to "focus produces power", even in an industry like crypto that changes very quickly and is greatly affected by emotions.

So, why not focus your attention on the recent developments of CKB and RGB++.

Development, ecological map is being improved

On April 24, I shared the ecological map under NERVOS, and a friend commented like this: "It looks like a lot, but the effective part is the part in the lower left corner."

Yes, at that time, some of the parts in the lower left corner were even in the conceptual stage, some had not been developed, and some had just been developed and were not mature. On the one hand, there are historical problems left over from the previous cycle that need to be made up; on the other hand, the new protocol has just been established and all industries are waiting to be developed.

Now, two and a half months have passed, let's take a look at what changes have taken place:

RGB++

Wallet

• Joyid Wallet has made many upgrades based on user needs, supporting mnemonics and private key export and more networks

• Gate Wallet announced support for RGB++ assets

• Unisat is likely to support RGB++ assets soon (as can be seen from the latest Fractal)

Products

• LeapX makes a layer of asset cross-chain based on RGB++

• Nervape carried out two rounds of accessories airdrops

• World3 issues assets based on RGB++

• Cellula issues assets based on RGB++

• .BIT is transformed into RGB++ assets to create a universal domain name system

Platform

• LeapX makes a layer of asset cross-chain based on RGB++

• Nervape carried out two rounds of accessories airdrops

• World3 issues assets based on RGB++

• Cellula issues assets based on RGB++

• .BIT is transformed into RGB++ assets to create a universal domain name system

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Infrastructure

• UTXO STACK is progressing rapidly and is about to become an important part of solving the future expansion of CKB and RGB++

• The "application of isomorphic binding technology" based on other chains is under development

CKB

• Based on the characteristics of CELL, more networks are supported, and the scope of abstract accounts based on POW is shifted.

• Nostr protocol has been integrated, and related binding technology has been completed.

• CCBTC has been connected to introduce BTC assets into the ecosystem.

• Mobit has been developed to manage CKB and RGB++ assets in different wallets.

• CCC, a management tool for developers, has been opened.

• The lightning network based on CKB is about to begin testing.

Of course, this is only the part I know. As for what is actually being done, there may be more... In fact, I am quite amazed at the speed and progress, but it has not received enough attention in this "market full of various information".

After sorting out this information, I tried to sort out the development routes of CKB and RGB++ from the context.

Characteristics are the key

To achieve the goal, it is necessary to establish an accurate positioning of oneself. What is the positioning of CKB and RGB++? To answer this question, we need to go back to the understanding of "CKB and RGB++" and look for their characteristics.

In the market, every project/technology has its own characteristics, such as BTC's characteristics are "most decentralized and most secure", ETH's characteristics are "smart contracts", RGB's characteristics are "clients", and Lightning Network's characteristics are "native and payment". So what are the characteristics of CKB and RGB++?

RGB++: Binding

Many people will emphasize that RGB++ is a BTC layer-one asset protocol, but in my opinion, this is not the main characteristic. There are many layer-one assets, such as brc20, runes, atomics... We are not short of layer-one asset protocols. What we lack is the part of technology that is truly innovative.

Yes, it is "isomorphic binding"!

In the entire technology of RGB++, "isomorphic binding" is the essence. The "description of L1/L2 duality" we see in the market all comes from this technology. It provides a new way of cross-chain assets, allowing assets to flow freely on isomorphic chains in a native way. It's like building bridges between a group of isolated islands. In the past, you could only entrust people with small boats to carry materials back and forth, but now you can carry materials across the bridge yourself.

What is a new technology narrative? It may be a new concept/form/implementation process, but it must be new, not available in the market before or not tried before. Isomorphic binding is such a technology in this round.

CKB: CELL

It's actually difficult to define the characteristics of CKB. It has many labels, such as the Chinese celebrity public chain? POW? Enhanced UTXO? ... Many labels carry some characteristics of CKB. But if I have to choose, I would prefer the characteristics that enable it to go far:

CELL

Yes, it is a new accounting model created by CKB: the CELL model. This is an enhanced UTXO model that combines the programmability of the account model with the scalability and flexibility of the UTXO model. Its abstract level makes it less restrictive for system and application contract developers, and combined with CKB-VM, it can develop many functions that cannot be realized in the traditional UTXO model.

However, in terms of scalability, EVM and others have already achieved a lot. Is this something new? ! For the account model, it is indeed sparse and common, but it is difficult for the UTXO model. If you pay a little attention to the development of the BTC ecosystem in this round, you will know: in order to achieve scalability, even a small aspect of scalability, it is difficult to do it based on UTXO. Thanks to the characteristics of the early CKB framework, it can have this scalability in the UTXO chain.

In fact, I want to add another POW in the front, but most people don’t have any feeling about the consensus mechanism of the chain. Anyway, it is just verified on the chain. However, as you delve deeper, you will find that POW is the "bottom line of value" and the "support for decentralization". Of course, the market may not care about these. What's the use of a public chain controlled by a dozen nodes? As long as it can be played, it's fine!

Two lines

Now, we can roughly sort out the two current lines, two related, parallel but not completely subordinate lines.

RGB++ line: assets, flow, extension

>Isomorphic binding needs to play its role, assets are the foundation, so it is necessary to promote different ecological projects to issue RGB++ assets

>For assets to flow, transactions and other behaviors are required, so various platforms such as the first layer and the second layer are necessary conditions, and the implementation of the second layer needs to rely on the design of CELL, which is where the lines converge

>It cannot be played within a small circle, it needs to extend to more areas, so it is necessary to associate more first-layer assets and more chains, which is why CCBTC, leapX, Fractal, etc. were introduced; extension requires theoretical design and practical development, all of which require money, which is the purpose of the establishment of the "Eco Fund"

CKB line: infrastructure, new scenes

>To solve the problem of CKB occupation, we need UTXO STACK; to solve the payment TPS problem, we need CKB's lightning network, and we need to develop new functions according to actual needs.

>To give full play to the expansion characteristics of CELL, we need to find suitable expansion scenarios. The AA wallet based on CELL script can solve the payment scenario, combined with nostr, it can be used for functional social scenarios, and combined with xudt, it can be used for assets that meet the game scenario..

Nostr, a key?

From the user's perspective, what we need is interesting products, and it is useless to just talk about technology. I seem to have seen a combination of product forms from the recent updates.

Nostr is a decentralized, P2P communication protocol. It is simple and beautiful, with a high DIY attribute. However, the products based on Nostr have not received widespread attention. Social protocols such as Prime are only used by some early geeks, and the associated BTC lightning network payment method is also relatively complicated.

What if Nostr is combined with CKB network/RGB++ assets?

1. Nostr account can be used as CKB AA wallet, and can directly transfer payments to other accounts through Nostr account, and the assets paid can be BTC assets, RGB++ assets, EVM assets, and even SOL assets in the future.

2. Nostr accounts can directly participate in DAPPs on CKB, such as Mint assets, interactive Defi, and the latest blink and Farcaster Frame applet on SOL.

3. CKB's upcoming lightning network will make payments faster and the overall implementation process more concise. You don't need to bind an additional lightning account, and CKB's lightning network can even run smart contracts to implement some logical controls.

4. All Event content on Nostr may be directly programmed with different types of assets on the CKB network. The Event mechanism and CKB's POW network can effectively ensure the ownership of assets, which will generate many interesting ideas for asset interaction and asset issuance.

Of course, I don't think that using this set of logic to make a product that imitates existing social software can achieve great success. It needs to find a more suitable scenario, a scenario that strongly requires "payment" and "messaging". This combination of scenarios may be the key to open the market.

Ambition

I have expectations for the CKB and RGB++ teams, so I use the word "ambition" to express my expectations for their future, which also includes their outlook and planning for the future.

For a POW chain that has been running for so many years and can still maintain updates and new narratives, it is actually not an easy thing. You can find many counterexamples in this market. It is difficult to keep the original intention of doing a project.

So, what is the ambition of CKB and RGB++? Maybe:

Make RGB++ into a series of channels, connecting most of the assets on the upper layer, and connecting more UTXO chains; at the intersection of the roads is the castle built by CKB, where various WEB2/WEB3 applications can be widely used, whether it is payment, social, finance, games or other.