Botanix, a Bitcoin-based layer-2 blockchain, underwent its mainnet debut on Tuesday, Botanix Labs, the network’s creator, said in a press release. The network is trying to support decentralized finance, or DeFi, applications, by mixing aspects of Ethereum’s design with crypto’s oldest network. Botanix supports trading, lending, borrowing, and staking “all in Bitcoin on Bitcoin,” the firm said in a press release. Botanix, which was founded in 2023, said that its network is decentralized “from the start,” with a so-called federation of node operators that could theoretically prevent Botanix from asserting control over the network. Galaxy Digital and Fireblocks are among 16 entities that have agreed to run Botanix nodes independently, the company said. “If we want a world that runs on Bitcoin, we have to build systems that honor its core principles of self-custody,” Botanix Labs co-founder and CEO Willem Schroé said. “No single party, including us, can touch a user’s Bitcoin.”  Among decentralized applications debuting on Botanix, Botanix labs highlighted Dolomite, a money market and decentralized exchange protocol, and GMX, another decentralized exchange that specializes in perpetual futures with up to 100x leverage. Botanix is being billed as an “EVM-equivalent” network. That means developers familiar with Ethereum’s Virtual Machine, or EVM, should be able to port existing applications over without modification, while being able to use tools that feel familiar to them. “Bitcoin is our gas token, Bitcoin is our settlement layer, and our goal is truly to build an endogenous Bitcoin finance ecosystem,” Botanix co-founder Alisia Painter told Decrypt in May. “The EVM is really the game-changer for bringing a lot of these applications to Bitcoin.” Although Bitcoin’s core software is built purely around financial transactions, a number of projects have sought to extend Bitcoin utility. When Ordinals arrived in 2023, the technology was used to create Bitcoin-native music, games, and NFT-like art collections. The later BRC-20 and Runes protocols added the ability to launch fungible tokens on Bitcoin, and more recently, stablecoin issuer Tether said that it’s launching USDT on Bitcoin. At $2.1 trillion, Bitcoin represents around 62% of the crypto market’s value, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Projects like Botanix aim at using investors’ deep reserves to power DeFi applications and increase the asset’s utility beyond buying and holding. Whether it’s Sui, Cardano, or Aptos, layer-1 networks have recently sought Bitcoin integrations, too. In March, a research analyst at crypto exchange Binance wrote that Bitcoin-based DeFi has the “potential to unlock billions in dormant BTC liquidity and enhance Bitcoin’s capital efficiency,” while also being able to help Bitcoin investors earn better returns. Alongside Botanix’s mainnet launch, the company said it is introducing “Bitcoin 2100.” The browser-based game, which teaches players “what’s possible when Bitcoin becomes programmable,” allows them to collect tiny amounts of “free Bitcoin,” the company said. Edited by James Rubin