Why is the GOAT Network so unconventional?

Author: Kevin Source: X, @kevinliub

Everything stems from the strategic layout made two and a half years ago.

When we realized the profound impact of zkVM on the blockchain industry, especially in the challenges of unified consensus and liquidity fragmentation, the Founders decisively decided: All in!

The direction has been determined, but how do we choose the implementation path? This is the primary challenge we face in the early stages of our strategy. Among the many possibilities, we have made a series of seemingly "counter-mainstream" decisions:

1. We did not choose the popular Risc-V, but instead opted for the MIPS instruction set. The core reason is that MIPS is simple, efficient, mature, and stable, and it supports more opcodes than Risc-V. These are essential for building a commercial foundation, because all efforts ultimately need to support practical business applications, rather than being purely social experiments for the sake of trends.

2. We did not choose to invest in BD resources from the beginning, signing contracts and carrying out joint promotions with various projects. Instead, we cut down the previously hired BD and marketing departments and focused on refining the product, because we believe that before the product matures, all of this BD and marketing is irresponsible towards our partners. Especially when they really want to use it but find that it is unavailable, that would be a blow to our brand, rather than an enhancement.

3. We also did not choose the B2B strategy adopted by most zkVM projects. As an underlying project, targeting applications and chains for business development and letting them use the B2B path of zkVM is the easiest thought, but there is a logical trap here, which is how many applications and chains will actually use zk. Can this usage truly support such high valuations for so many zkVM projects? zkVM still needs time to further reduce costs and improve speed before it can lead to large-scale commercial applications. How long into the future do we have to overdraw to support the current valuation? Therefore, we choose a bottom-up, vertically integrated approach, selecting the scenarios most in need of ZKP to build our zkMIPS use case, which is the GOAT Network—Bitcoin ZK Rollup. We need to take control of our future ourselves, rather than relying on the uncertain demand of third parties to build our business model.

4. After choosing GOAT Network, the direction of Bitcoin Layer 2, although we quickly launched the alpha mainnet of the sidechain to verify the overall business logic, we did not stop there, BTC native security is always our goal, so we chose and improved the technical solution and economic model of BitVM2, and fully realized the native security of BTC Layer 2 by integrating zkMIPS and decentralized Sequencer. More importantly, when almost everyone in the industry chooses to centralize the construction of BTC layer 2, we choose decentralized Sequencer, which returns the income generated by the transaction volume generated by layer 2 (such as gas fees, mining rewards, MEV, etc.) to contributors as their BTC native income for providing liquidity and security.

5. While almost all BTC Layer 2 projects are following a technical narrative, we choose a dual-spiral approach of technology + economic model, because we believe that technology can only drive business to a certain extent, and the economic model will determine how long and how far your business can go. Our Universal Operator, multi-round random challenger model, etc. are all innovations in the field of economic models.

6. While almost all investors are showing a wait-and-see attitude towards BTC Layer 2, we choose to firmly remain bullish on BTC Layer 2 and BTCfi, as we have a deep understanding of the technology, business model, and user needs. We firmly believe that the era of BTCfi is far from over.

The result of all these strategic choices? LOL, to give an inappropriate example, yesterday in the clash between India and Pakistan, Indian warplanes were shot down before they could fly out of the country, and it is said that 6 of them, including some of the most advanced French Rafale fighters on the market. The reason for this is that India is made in all countries, stacking the systems of Russia, France and other countries, and these systems are isolated from each other and cannot form an overall synergy, resulting in the result that it looks advanced but is actually vulnerable; On the other hand, Pakistan has adopted China's fighters, missiles, early warning aircraft and data links to form a complete combat system.

The GOAT Network is precisely this way; our strategic choice is not a single-point breakthrough but a systematic layout, driven by both technology and economy, forming a complete ecological system.