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Why Core


Core is Bitcoin’s complementary and symbiotic smart contract platform. It unlocks Bitcoin-native yield, Bitcoin-powered smart contracts, a second block reward for miners, and an end-to-end BTCfi ecosystem. Overall, Core represents a paradigm shift in how we use Bitcoin. It amplifies its role as a Store of Value through the Bitcoin Risk-Free Rate and facilitates its transition to Medium of Exchange by providing Bitcoin-secured, yet hyper-scalable blockchain rails for more efficient transactions and a variety of other use-cases. Core’s approach not only aligns with Bitcoin’s ethos of decentralization, transparency, and permissionlessness, but also safeguards and enhances the base Bitcoin network.

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Key Distinguishing Features of Core

Core is a decentralized, secure, and scalable blockchain network backed by Bitcoin’s PoW. Some of the major characteristics that sets it apart from its competitors are as follows:

  • Bitcoin-aligned: Core is designed to unlock Bitcoin's protection by enabling Bitcoin miners to delegate their security to an EVM-compatible smart contract platform and subsidize Bitcoin mining by providing CORE token rewards to Bitcoin miners that require no added expense or opportunity cost. While Bitcoin serves as the defender of a perfectly scarce, passive monetary asset, Core is designed to be the decentralized rails upon which digital assets, like Bitcoin, gain substantial utility. Furthermore, Core offers a risk-free rate to Bitcoin Stakers who are rewarded financially in the Core ecosystem in return for staking their Bitcoin. These rewards can be in the form of block rewards through delegations or staking awards through staking Bitcoin onto Core. Currently, over 75% of Bitcoin mining hash power and through the ground-breaking innovation of Non-Custodial Bitcoin staking more than 8,200 Bitcoins are already contributing to Core's security model.

  • Decentralized: Core Chain’s decentralization is facilitated through the three-part system by which validators are elected under Satoshi Plus consensus. On the one hand, Bitcoin miners can vote for validators by writing data into the coinbase transactions of newly-mined Bitcoin blocks (DPoW). On the other, CORE token holders can vote for validators by delegating CORE tokens to them (DPoS). Because Bitcoin hash power and CORE tokens are highly distributed, both the DPoW and DPoS aspects of Satoshi Plus consensus work together to uphold Core Chain’s decentralization. Bitcoin Stakers also play an important role in decentralziation of the Core network as well. They aid in validator elections alongside with CORE token holders in DPoS, leveraging Bitcoin's distributed hash power.

  • Secure: Core Chain’s security rests on several pillars. The most important of these is the Satoshi Plus Consensus Mechanism, which achieves decentralization through a combination of DPoW, DPoS, and Non-Custodial Bitcoin Staking. The combination of these leverages Bitcoin miners, Bitcoin Stakers and Core Stakers to maintain the security of the network. Through the Core Chain’s security model, the network can thwart consensus attacks through its incentive structures, which feature rewards for participants that identify malicious nodes and mechanisms for punishing those nodes, and it incorporates checkpointing and similar safeguards for preventing other kinds of long-range attacks. To further strengthen its network and avoid any attacks that may rise due to loopholes in the codebase, Core Chain’s codebase is audited from several top-tier blockchain security firms.

  • Scalable: Core is highly scalable, capable of eventually a large user base of participants, with high transaction throughput and low latency. This is due in part to the fact that DPoS is inherently more scalable than either standard PoS or PoW, and in part to the fact that the network can increase the rate at which blocks are mined by adding many more validators. What’s more, there will be additional scaling solutions developed on top of the network in the future.

  • Permissionless: Core Chain’s permissionlessness means anyone can participate in and build on Core, without approval or authorization from any gatekeeping entity. The network’s decentralization, open-source software, and consensus model are designed to maintain this permissionlessness in perpetuity.

  • Community Governed: Core Chain’s governance is a blend of immutable and mutable components. The immutable aspects are those that must be kept in place, like the total supply of CORE. Nonetheless, other aspects of on-chain governance would benefit from adaptability. For those, the decentralized autonomous organization responsible for network development, Core DAO, is designed to become progressively more decentralized as on-chain participation grows. All CORE token holders will be able to vote on the adaptations of certain protocol parameters. As stakeholders in the network, Bitcoin Stakers potentially influence Core Chain’s governance through their economic stake and participation in consensus activities. Their involvement ensures that a broad base of the community, including those invested in Bitcoin, has a say in the evolutionary path of the network's protocols and policies.

  • Interoperable: Core can interface with a wide variety of blockchain projects. Because it is EVM compatible all protocols on Core can interact with one another, Ethereum-based protocols can be ported to Core with relative ease, and cross-chain solutions allow communication across other blockchains. Other than EVM compatibility, Core also offers interoperability with Bitcoin in the form of Non-custodial Bitcoin Staking, where users can stake their Bitcoin onto the Core without having to give up the custody of their assets maintained on the Bitcoin network. Further, coreBTC offers Bitcoin the interoperability to be bridged onto the Core blockchain and be used in the DeFi landscape.

  • Composable: For Core, composability is achieved through support of the popular Solidity smart contract language. Solidity allows developers to create smart contracts that can call functions within other contracts, send CORE tokens to them, and even create new contract instances. This allows for the building of complex interlocking systems of contracts able to facilitate peer-to-peer borrowing and lending, open liquidity pools, trading platforms, live, accurate on-chain data, and much more.

Core Offers Something for Everybody

Core is a blockchain synthesis that unlocks something for everybody. Here are some of the many interested groups and how Core supports them:

  • Bitcoin Holders: Core puts your Bitcoin to work without requiring you to give up custody. Bitcoin holders can earn the Bitcoin Risk-Free Rate through Core’s Non-Custodial Bitcoin Staking. Without bridging your Bitcoin or even necessarily engaging in Core DeFi, Bitcoin holders can earn more by simply continuing to hold.

  • Bitcoin Users: For those interested in using Bitcoin as a Medium of Exchange, Core makes Bitcoin transactions and financial activity practical with its fast, efficient, and Bitcoin-protected blockchain rails. On Core, the Bitcoin asset gains a tailor-made financial ecosystem its users can enjoy permissionlessly.

  • DeFi Users: DeFi experts can find many familiar use-cases in Core’s dapp ecosystem, given that Core is fully EVM-compatible and supports a variety of smart contract use-cases. Many opportunities for lending, borrowing, swapping, and other activities are available. This young and growing ecosystem is a great opportunity for DeFi veterans to mount their BTCfi journey.

  • Web3 Enthusiasts: Beyond DeFi, Core’s Turing completeness opens the door to a variety of blockchain-enabled use-cases. NFTs, gaming, and other features are an open canvas for believers in an open and user-owned internet.

  • Builders: Core is fully permissionless and EVM-compatible, meaning any developer with Solidity experience can create a dapp and launch it with familiarity. Core is also home to a robust ecosystem of dev tools and infrastructure providers, making building a seamless experience. Core also has a vibrant ecosystem of users ready for the emergence of next-gen Bitcoin-powered dapps.

  • Bitcoin Miners: Core’s Delegated Proof of Work unlocks a second block reward for Bitcoin miners who are always searching for critical rewards. Furthermore, Core extends the protection of Bitcoin miners beyond the mere Bitcoin asset, and onto an ecosystem that can fully tap into the potential of that asset.

  • Bitcoin Supporters: Even without personally engaging with the Core blockchain, Bitcoin supporters can appreciate how Core aligns itself with Bitcoin for the betterment of both the Bitcoin network and asset. With better rewarded, and therefore more highly incentivized miners, the Bitcoin network grows stronger, while the Bitcoin asset gains a sophisticated smart contract environment.

  • Freedom Believers: Core is a fully permissionless blockchain, enabling anyone across the world to participate. This ethos promotes financial opportunity for communities that can most benefit from the emergence and popularity of Bitcoin and blockchain technology.