The Bitcoin network has added a new feather to its cap with the debut of Alpha, a social token network that stands as a rival to the successful platform Friend.tech, but constructed on the Bitcoin blockchain. Alpha executes as a decentralized social network protocol like Friend.tech, facilitating users to capitalize on their digital personas and content creation through social tokens.
However, here is the plot twist. Alpha operates differently from Friend.tech, with its construction built on the Bitcoin blockchain, employing the Polygon blockchain for data preservation, and the Trustless Computer (TC) is the project’s own scaling network for Bitcoin. In the words of a co-founder of the project, Punk3700, Alpha is essentially “a rollup that rolls up to another rollup that rolls up to Bitcoin.”
But why would Alpha choose to anchor itself on Bitcoin and not on the Ethereum blockchain, like its competitor, Friend.tech? A potentially crisp answer lies in the layered architecture of Alpha which accommodates NOS-TC. Here, the Trustless Computer (TC) is an optimistic rollup layer that centers specifically on the Bitcoin blockchain, with NOS acting as an additional layer of optimistic product layers designed to offer added scalability on Bitcoin. Understandably, these layers pool together their functionalities to offer a secure and efficient environment for launching decentralized applications.
Hosting data validity on Bitcoin and data storage on Polygon, Alpha resists against the mounting costs incurred on Bitcoin, allowing a pliable environment for different data storage requirements. This bolsters the Alpha’s resolve to sidestep exorbitant Bitcoin fees for such actions, and instead channel that saving into benefitting the user base through lower transaction fees.
Despite claimants that the Friend.tech platform is deceased due to a slump in key metrics including user activity, inflows, and volume, along with rumors of a data leak, Alpha’s emergence on the Bitcoin network signifies broader possibilities for decentralized social networks. Particularly amid claims from Friend.tech to excommunicate users who shift to forks and copies, as a measure to reward their loyal user base fairly during their beta phase, Alpha explains the essence of maintaining a healthy competitive atmosphere in the ever-evolving blockchain world.
As Alpha continues to gather steam with a surge in new user signups, it sets the stage for a paradigm shift in the blockchain universe. It sends a strong message about the power of community-driven development to spur the creation of valuable content by content creators and inspires users to invite friends to join the platform, thereby infusing life into an ever-dynamic crypto space. The future of Alpha on the Bitcoin network looks promising. Would it rewrite the rules of the game, only time can tell.
Source: Cointelegraph
