Botanix Labs is excited to announce our partnership with Chainlink. As part of this collaboration, Botanix Labs has joined the Chainlink Scale program, which supports the sustainable growth and long-term adoption of the Spiderchain protocol. As part of this program, Chainlink Data Feeds are being integrated into Spiderchain. Additionally, Chainlink CCIP is being integrated into Spiderchain as its canonical cross-chain infrastructure, giving Botanix builders the industry-standard services needed to build novel onchain apps secured by Bitcoin.

Joining Scale provides Botanix developers with enhanced access to Chainlink’s high-quality, low-cost oracle services by enabling Botanix Labs to cover operating costs of Chainlink Data Feeds for a period of time. As Botanix’s ecosystem matures, the operating costs of oracle networks can transition toward being fully covered by dApp user fees.

Botanix Labs is the protocol development team building the Spiderchain, the first fully decentralized EVM-equivalent second-layer network on Bitcoin. Leveraging Bitcoin's proof-of-work for base settlement and decentralization, Botanix will use a proof-of-stake consensus model, where the stakes (represented by bitcoin) are securely stored on the Spiderchain, a distributed network of decentralized multisigs safeguarded by a randomized subset of participants.

Recent advancements, such as the Taproot upgrade in 2021, have paved the way for DeFi on Bitcoin (BTCFi), sparking innovation in how Bitcoin's liquidity can be harnessed for onchain applications. BTCFi presents a compelling opportunity for developing feature-rich onchain applications. Chainlink and Botanix are uniquely positioned to accelerate the development of these DeFi applications on Bitcoin, providing a secure and innovative approach that will drive adoption and fully unlock the potential of BTCFi.

With Chainlink having been instrumental in the growth of DeFi from a niche ecosystem into a multi-hundred-billion dollar industry, there is now an opportunity to support the emerging Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem and help pave the way for secure and feature-rich onchain decentralized applications built on Bitcoin. Chainlink and Botanix Labs can help bring secure, decentralized applications to Bitcoin.

Botanix Labs’ Spiderchain offers several benefits:

• Greater scalability— Botanix runs at block times of 5 seconds, significantly reducing the settlement time for transacting with Bitcoin, and ensuring a much higher throughput.
• Reduced fees— Botanix operates at gas fees of a few cents per transaction, unlocking use cases secured by Bitcoin that wouldn’t be feasible on the main Bitcoin network, such as micropayments.
• Programmable smart contracts—Although Bitcoin was not initially designed to support smart contracts, Botanix Labs’ EVM can introduce this functionality, enabling the creation of complex decentralized applications and novel programmable financial instruments built on Bitcoin.
• Deeper liquidity— Botanix can improve liquidity and access to Bitcoin, unlocking DeFi on Bitcoin with enhanced liquidity, capital efficiency, and increased access.

Building Secure Cross-Chain dApps With Chainlink CCIP

Botanix Labs chose CCIP as the canonical interoperability solution for Spiderchain because Chainlink has a proven track record of maintaining a hight standard of security and reliability, with CCIP being the only interoperability solution achieving level-5 cross-chain security. Furthermore, CCIP leverages the Risk Management Network—a separate, independent network that continually monitors and verifies cross-chain operations for suspicious activity. This additional layer of security is particularly important given historical industry exploits and the billions in user funds lost due to unreliable cross-chain infrastructure.

Chainlink CCIP provides a multitude of important benefits and features, such as:

• Defense-in-depth security — CCIP’s consensus and messaging layer is powered by Chainlink decentralized oracle networks, which have already secured tens of billions of dollars for smart contracts and enabled over $15 trillion in onchain transaction value. CCIP also features additional layers of protection and reliability along with Smart Execution.
• Programmable Token Transfers — CCIP messages are programmable, meaning token transfers and arbitrary data transfers can be one atomic transaction. This enables instructions to be passed in the data payload regarding what to do with the tokens once they arrive at the destination chain.
• Seamless integration — CCIP offers a unified cross-chain developer experience by providing a single, easy-to-integrate interface. Developers only need to integrate the CCIP Router onchain to start building secure cross-chain applications.
• Extendable and future-proof — CCIP is built to support continuous updates, such as the integration of new blockchains, the introduction of advanced functionalities, and the addition of other defense-in-depth approaches to security. Thus, integrating with CCIP minimises future switching costs should new cross-chain functionalities be needed.

Enabling Secure DeFi With Industry-Standard Chainlink Data Feeds

As the most widely adopted data standard in the onchain ecosystem, Chainlink already helps secure leading DeFi protocols responsible for tens of billions of dollars in smart contract value, maintaining robust security and high availability even amidst unexpected events.

Chainlink Data Feeds deliver several critical features and benefits, such as:

• High-Quality Data — Chainlink Data Feeds source data from numerous premium data aggregators, leading to price data that’s aggregated from hundreds of exchanges, weighted by volume, and cleaned of outliers and wash trading. Chainlink’s data aggregation model generates more precise global market prices that are inherently resistant to inaccuracies or manipulation of any single or small set of exchanges.
• Secure Node Operators — Chainlink Data Feeds are secured by independent, security-reviewed, and Sybil-resistant oracle nodes run by leading blockchain DevOps teams, data providers, and traditional enterprises. Chainlink nodes have a strong track record of reliability, even during high gas prices and infrastructure outages.
• Decentralized Network — Chainlink Data Feeds are decentralized at the data source, oracle node, and oracle network levels, generating strong protections against downtime and tampering by either the data provider or oracle network.
• Reputation System — Chainlink provides a robust reputation framework and set of onchain monitoring tools that allow users to independently verify the historical and real-time performance of node operators and oracle networks.

“Botanix is the first Bitcoin layer 2 to join Scale, a significant step in helping its developers to build secure, scalable, and fully-featured dApps on Bitcoin,” said Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs. “Bitcoin layer-2s are redefining how the world views Bitcoin, and they’re setting in motion a new wave of momentum that will undoubtedly enrich the Bitcoin ecosystem and the greater blockchain industry.”

"We are excited to work with Chainlink to bring the best of DeFi to Bitcoin,” said Alisia Painter, Co-Founder and COO at Botanix Labs. “By joining Chainlink Scale, Botanix Labs can ensure our ecosystem projects have access to the industry-leading tools needed to build secure and advanced decentralized applications.”

About Chainlink

Chainlink is the universal platform for pioneering the future of global markets onchain. Chainlink has enabled over $15 trillion in transaction value by providing financial institutions, startups, and developers worldwide with access to real-world data, offchain computation, and secure cross-chain interoperability across any blockchain. Chainlink powers verifiable applications and high-integrity markets for banking, DeFi, global trade, gaming, and other major sectors.

Learn more about Chainlink by visiting chain.link or reading the developer documentation at docs.chain.link.

About Botanix Labs

Since 2022, Botanix Labs has pursued its mission to build the Spiderchain, the first fully EVM-equivalent second-layer network on Bitcoin. Botanix Labs was founded with the mission of building technologies to safeguard a decentralized, Bitcoin-native financial system that benefits from the security and liquidity of the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency.

Learn more about Botanix Labs by visiting botanixlabs.xyz.