The four most famous international exchanges:

Binance INTL	OKX INTL	Gate.io INTL	Huobi INTL
China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL

Note: The above exchange logo is the official website registration link, and the text is the APP download link.

It is undeniable that Bitcoin remains the undisputed “king of blockchains”. Bitcoin’s dominance has increased significantly since its experimental period in 2017. Bitcoin has survived many attempted forks and “civil wars” and established itself as a reserve cryptocurrency. People fall back on Bitcoin in bear markets. Today, the production network has stood the test of time for more than 10 years.

However, when it comes to smart contracts or Web 3.0, the crypto industry is no longer using Bitcoin. I believe this will change.

Bitcoin is indeed not a panacea. Bitcoin is secure because of its limited scripting language. Bitcoin is reliable and persistent because it is immutable.

This does not mean that the developer ecosystem around Bitcoin cannot innovate and support Web 3.0. As the crypto industry moves towards Web
3.0, we will realize that Bitcoin’s security and network impact are difficult to overcome.

Despite some efforts by some potential competitors, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network and the security provided by its proof-of-work (PoW) mining remain unmatched to this day. New cryptocurrencies have tried to launch their own native PoW networks for years, but none have reached the success of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin has a network effect

Most people are introduced to cryptocurrencies through Bitcoin. If something can be done on top of Bitcoin, it will eventually be done on top of Bitcoin rather than a smaller ecosystem. Network effects make Bitcoin's success self-reinforcing: miners see the network building, the community growing, and the currency being the "hardest" in crypto. Miners join or expand their commitment, increasing hash power and network reliability; their participation incentivizes more holders and businesses, increasing community support. The cycle continues.

Smart Contracts on Bitcoin

Despite Bitcoin's success, critics who question Bitcoin's ability to innovate have some valid points. Some aspects of Bitcoin frustrate developers who want to explore the world of smart contracts and decentralized applications. Many projects create their own blockchains because they see Bitcoin's scripting limitations as a deal breaker. They can't deny the security of the original chain, but they also want to be able to write more expressive smart contracts. New blockchains find themselves struggling with poor native PoW security and often try to jump to Proof of Stake (PoS) or Delegated Proof of Stake (PoS) setups, which can be less secure and tend toward centralization.

As a result, several crypto projects have concluded that they must choose their own path: they must try to bootstrap a native PoW chain or build a PoS chain, with all the tradeoffs that come with that.

However, these are not the only options. There is a different path to take: smart contract platforms can leverage Bitcoin’s PoW security to secure new blockchains.

New protocols can anchor Bitcoin’s security and extend Bitcoin’s utility. Transactions settled in Bitcoin are harder to reorganize than on other networks. This is an unexplored design space, but it is starting to change.

The Bitcoin blockchain already has security from energy consumption, which can be passed on to interchains using concepts like Proof of Transfer (PoX). It is important to recognize that interchains are different from traditional sidechains. Interchains create their own crypto assets, but they leverage the Bitcoin chain to broadcast mining operations and consensus steps. An interchain based on Bitcoin is a win-win proposition for all parties, as new blockchains benefit from Bitcoin’s reliability and longevity while providing freedom and flexibility to developers using the interchain.

The Bitcoin blockchain can also benefit from new and powerful use cases. These can attract new miners and new network participants, further solidifying Bitcoin’s position as a reserve cryptocurrency.

Among smart contract platforms, including the author’s own projects, understand the power of on-chain contracts. However, just like you don’t need to build all new roads to drive new cars, you don’t need to reinvent PoW or PoS chains to adopt reliable smart contracts or launch new blockchains. The solid foundations needed to realize our Web
3.0 vision are already in place, and the future Web 3.0 can use Bitcoin as its foundation.