Tokens on Bitcoin? Xiaohui Liu joins the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream

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On episode 42 of the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream Season 3, sCrypt creator Xiaohui Liu joined Kurt Wuckert Jr. to talk about tokens on Bitcoin, the latest developments from sCrypt, and much more.

BTC censors are at it again

Wuckert starts by pointing to the latest developments in BTC. Once again, Luke Dashjr, who played an instrumental role in the Bitcoin civil war, calls for censorship. He has re-launched an old mining pool under the name OCEAN and is calling Ordinals and other Bitcoin inscriptions spam, claiming a patch will soon end them.

Dashjr is backed by none other than Jack Dorsey, one of the most ruthless censors of all time based on his tenure running Twitter. Wuckert has long warned about the authoritarian streak of most BTC advocates, and he’s being proven right once again.

What did Xiaohui Liu think of Ordinals at first?

Wuckert introduces Liu as the creator of sCrypt and a supporter of smart contracts, Ordinals, and using sats as tokens. He asks him what he thought of Ordinals when he first encountered them.

Liu says he thought they were an old idea like Colored Coins reborn. He then decided to write an article about Ordinals to educate himself and express his thoughts. He soon realized it could be done on BSV with much lower transaction fees.

Liu’s sCrypt has been mostly focused on smart contracts, and he has always thought of them and tokens as separate. Essentially, contracts control how tokens move, whatever they represent. Liu also tells us that sCrypt launched inscriptions this weekend, making uploading pictures to the blockchain quick and easy.

Liu’s ideal token protocol and STAS vs. Ordinals

Wuckert recalls Liu explaining his ideal token protocol to him at the London Blockchain Conference. He asks for his opinion on STAS as compared to Ordinals.

sCrypt supported Ordinals to give developers a choice, Liu says. STAS and RUN have their own scripts. If any other future protocol is compatible with sCrypt, they’ll likely support it, too. It’s all about maximizing choice for developers.

Liu says he always prefers something that works and is interoperable today versus promises that something might work in 18 months. He reminds us that the code is there, is free to use, and nobody needs his permission. It’s possible for anyone with the right idea to build a unicorn using it right now.

In what ways could people utilize Ordinals? How does Liu envisage the sat being used?

“It’s everything,” Liu replies, reminding us that Dr. Craig Wright said this in 2014. This is not hyperbole, he emphasizes.

Ordinals were a perfect fit for sCrypt, unleashing all sorts of potential use cases. This goes far beyond finance and speculation; you could set up a trust without requiring lawyers and much more.

Wuckert draws parallels to the early days of the internet. There’s so much innovation happening on BSV right now that has him very excited, and sCrypt’s recent releases are part of that.

Could anyone without coding experience just use sCrypt right now, drag-and-drop style?

“Yes and no,” Liu says.

He says TAAL is building something like this. Wuckert reminds us that Zachary Weiner (VX Technologies) also has MagicDAPP and AlphaDAPP, both allowing uploading data to the blockchain drag-and-drop style.

Can Liu tell us why Bitcoin is the exchange?

Liu says it would be better to read Joshua Henslee’s article on it. In short, token limit orders are now possible on-chain. This is a huge step for on-chain trading as right now, users can only buy and sell full amounts, Henslee explains.

Wuckert adds to this that we need a universal stablecoin before this sort of thing can reach its full potential. Liu says that would be useful, but it can work between any tradable pair.

Why are there so many token protocols? Will there end up being one everybody uses?

Both Liu and Wuckert think one main protocol will take 95%, while there will still be niche and specialized ones. Even Ethereum, which has ERC-20 as the main protocol, has others that can be used for specific purposes.

To hear Wuckert and Liu’s thoughts on BitVM on BTC, derivatives on the blockchain, the LRC-20 protocol, and more, check out the live stream here. Don’t forget to subscribe to CoinGeek for more information like this!

Watch: Bitcoin is a highly oiled, well running machine—sCrypt CEO Xiaohui Liu