Bitcoin's New Favorite Fractal: Ecological Revolution or Trend Follower?

Since September, with the rising community sentiment sparked by Fractal, the market focus has shifted back to the Bitcoin ecosystem. A large number of users have participated in the assets and gameplay launched by Fractal, resulting in persistently high on-chain gas fees. There are three main reasons for the significant attention Fractal has generated: first, the overall market is currently sluggish and lacks fresh narratives; second, based on the precedent of a generous airdrop from a certain wallet, many users highly value Fractal's launch, leading to extreme competitiveness even during the testnet phase; third, the high multiplier effect brought by asset protocols like Cat20 has led to a continuous fermentation of the profit-making effect, sustaining the rising popularity of Fractal.

In addition, a certain official's hunger marketing strategy has also played a role. The originally small circulating supply of the FB airdrop has surged as on-chain competition intensified, with the price of FB skyrocketing, becoming a kind of "golden shovel" in a sense, which in turn accelerated the development of Fractal.

Based on the above reasons, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth analysis of Fractal.

Overview of Fractal: Bitcoin Scaling Native Solution

Fractal is a recursive expansion solution that extends infinitely on top of the Bitcoin core code. It is designed as a second layer network or sidechain for Bitcoin, serving as a native extension of the first layer network, improving transaction efficiency by accelerating block time and increasing block capacity while maintaining orthodoxy. It is fully compatible with the Bitcoin mainnet, allowing users to trade on the Fractal network and interact or synchronize with the mainnet. At the same time, it offers faster transaction confirmations, with 30 seconds block time and a block capacity that is 20 times that of the mainnet.

As a native expansion solution, Fractal can start from the Bitcoin main chain to achieve cross-layer secure asset transfer. Bitcoin and assets such as BRC-20 and Ordinals can be bridged through a decentralized bridge. The underlying mechanism is a dynamically replaceable rotating MPC signature, while also considering specific aspects of the BRC-20 standard.

Fractal is functionally more like the Bitcoin testnet, supporting some features that have not yet been activated on the mainnet in advance. It serves as a testing ground, providing a better user experience and performance optimization, suitable for experimental innovation in complex applications. It allows users to participate and provide feedback in a real interactive environment, similar to the significance of EVM layer2 for Ethereum.

Investment and Financing: Development Momentum Under Strong Alliances

The Fractal network was developed in collaboration by UniSat and Block Space Force. As the main developer, UniSat is a leading Bitcoin wallet with over 900,000 active users weekly. It has received five rounds of undisclosed funding, with two rounds led by a certain exchange and others participating, including a certain capital.

Block Space Force is a crypto-native fund with a portfolio that includes well-known projects like Babylon and Pendle, and has extensive experience in exiting and investing in hundred-fold projects as well as developing globally used blockchain applications. Overall, UniSat's resource advantages are more prominent, having attracted numerous loyal users through a successful brand and previous generous airdrops, making it the best endorsement for Fractal.

With the promotion of the two project parties, Fractal implemented a series of strategic plans to initiate user and developer participation. After the mainnet launch, it airdropped 1 million FB tokens to over 100,000 qualified addresses and carried out various developer resource funding programs, demonstrating its ambition for ecological development.

Fractal Highlights: Advantages Stand Out

The highlight of Fractal lies in the performance optimization and improvements based on the Bitcoin mainnet, as well as the introduction of related asset issuance methods and ecological applications. It can be metaphorically described as pouring "new wine" of a brand new asset issuance method into the "old bottle" of Bitcoin mainnet resources. Specifically:

• Compatible with the Bitcoin mainnet, supporting assets like BRC-20 and Ordinals to be bridged through a decentralized bridge.
• Transactions can interact with the Bitcoin mainnet for synchronization, while providing faster confirmation times and larger block capacity.
• The multi-layer expansion mechanism can dynamically increase the number of layers, flexibly responding to various loads.
• Using the same PoW consensus as Bitcoin, BTC miners can seamlessly switch mining.
• Introduce OP_CAT opcode, bringing more development possibilities to the BTC ecosystem

Token Economics

The Fractal mainnet mainly consumes two types of tokens: $FB( general gas ) and $SATS( exclusive gas ).

The total issuance of $FB is 210 million coins, distributed as follows:

• 50% for PoW mining
• 15% Ecosystem Treasury
• 15% core contributors
• 10% community subsidy
• 5% presale
• 5% Advisor

After the mainnet goes live, only the tokens produced through mining will be tradable, while others will have a lock-up mechanism. Private placement will be locked for six months. The official has not yet clarified whether there will be airdrop rewards for testnet users.

To ensure transparency, the official has published the addresses of various funds, allowing users to track the use of funds.

Ecological Overview

( CAT 20

The CAT20 protocol is currently the hottest ecological project of Fractal, released on September 11, with a total supply of 21 million. Despite some uncertainties, a large number of users rushed to mint due to community sentiment and KOL dissemination, causing on-chain Gas fees to soar. Its innovation lies in the use of the OP_CAT opcode, providing flexible and composable rules for complex DeFi applications. At the same time, transactions are fully verified by miners, reducing reliance on indexers.

![Exploring the New Favorite of BTC: Is Fractal an Ecological Revolution or a Follower?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-171113404f3dd01032f937984fa6c8c2.webp(

) BTCTerminal

BTCTerminal is a comprehensive trading market that supports querying Mint progress, wallet balances, and will also support Cat721 in the future. The project was originally an infrastructure provider for the Runes protocol, then rebranded and integrated into the Fractal ecosystem.

![Exploring the new darling of BTC: Is Fractal an ecological revolution or a trend follower?]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-2b583156ca830db2afaaedb3d9a017cf.webp(

) UniWorlds

UniWorlds is a metaverse project built on Fractal, aimed at developing community and game toolkits for interoperable virtual worlds. As the first major application on Fractal, it has received seed round investment from certain wallet and UGC platform providers, and it is a project that has clearly gained official resource support.

![Exploring BTC's New Favorite: Is Fractal an Ecological Revolution or a Follower?]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-215dc211a973d39eaa4d37697f50b228.webp(

) BRC20

The BRC20 functionality was activated at block 21000, and the on-chain gas remains high. However, based on trading volume and market capitalization, leading inscription projects do not perform prominently, with a common occurrence of startup rounds or studio buyouts. Future development still needs to be tested by the market.

![Exploring the new darling of BTC: Is Fractal an ecological revolution or a follower?]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-ff7e5a78c42e9f206763af49887b9249.webp(

Conclusion

From the current perspective, the Fractal project's innovations are limited, primarily focusing on compatibility and optimization of the mainnet. The ecological development is in its early stages, and it remains uncertain whether new projects will succeed. More answers will require time and market validation.

![Exploring the new darling of BTC: Is Fractal an ecological revolution or a follower?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-ad144d0469c8335acbaf3d413983e1fd.webp###