Saturn: The Breakthrough Bitcoin DEX
Building apps directly on the base layer of Bitcoin is, in many ways, the holy grail for blockchain developers. It is by far the most…
Saturn: The Breakthrough Bitcoin DEX
Building apps directly on the base layer of Bitcoin is, in many ways, the holy grail for blockchain developers. It is by far the most decentralized blockchain, with a $1T+ market cap that dwarfs competitors and ensures the greatest liquidity and security in the entire web3 ecosystem.
Tapping into just a fragment of that value would unlock a wealth of new opportunities for developers … and yet that value has been essentially untouched for over a decade due to Bitcoin’s technological constraints.
In fact, adding programmability to Bitcoin was thought to be improbable January 2023, when the Ordinals protocol launched and unleashed a massive wave of innovation.
“To see how far Bitcoin has come in just the last year is insane,” says Hex, the director of Saturn, which has emerged as the first and only functioning orderbook built on Bitcoin since launching in spring 2023. “We have a usable DEX experience on Bitcoin, which is wild.”
A massive appetite — and opportunity — for DeFi on Bitcoin
The arrival of Saturn is a groundbreaking moment for the entire Bitcoin community, with its digital ledger serving as a key component in building a functioning DeFi ecosystem for millions of Bitcoin holders.
There was clearly an appetite for Bitcoin DeFi, Hex says, noting that when BRC-20 tokens launched, they quickly attracted what is now a more than $1.2 billion market despite having obvious shortcomings.
“People wanted to buy these. They were very complicated and expensive, yet we still saw hundreds of millions pour into them,” he says.
“We took Saturn as far as we could on the base layer, and Arch is what takes it to the next level.”
Reaching the limitations of building on Bitcoin without Arch
Hex and his team also quickly realized that they were coming up against their own technological limitations while trying to build Saturn directly on Bitcoin.
“We realized that we had hit a ceiling,” Hex says. “We achieved all these things through a lot of abstraction solutions for the user, utilizing base layer multisigs to offer a unique trading experience that would otherwise be impossible.”
However, many Bitcoin holders have long been hesitant to use multisigs in “wrapped” EVM-compatible Bitcoin assets like wBTC, worried about how they might compromise security.
“We had been hemming and hawing about how to solve this … and then Arch came, and it was just so clear that this could be a monumental unlock for so many products.”
Tapping into the full security and liquidity of Bitcoin
With Arch, Hex realized Saturn could finally deal with its biggest drawback while capitalizing on the true opportunity of building on the world’s most valuable blockchain.
“We can repackage our exact existing infrastructure but instead plug in Arch, directly solving our biggest areas of weakness. Plus, it solves for the major liquidity issue you see on Bitcoin L2s, making it now possible to have true LPs.”
Users currently deposit funds into a Saturn trading wallet. But with Arch, that step becomes unnecessary. They will now be able to interact with Saturn directly with their regular wallet trustlessly, with added smart contract functionality and access to deeper liquidity through DeFi features like AMMs and liquidity pools.
Hex and his team have dedicated their full resources onto scaling into smart contract execution with Arch since Arch’s $7M seed round in May. They’ve been supported by the Arch core team, which coordinated closely with Saturn to help its app go live on the Arch Testnet.
Why Hex is so bullish on Arch
Hex sees Bitcoin as providing a powerful alternative to Ethereum for those who want programmability while also having the full decentralization of Bitcoin.
“One of the coolest things about Bitcoin is the fact that it’s the perfect conception of the most decentralized, secure chain that there is,” Hex says. “The whole argument of using Ethereum for programmability is that it has high levels of decentralization, and the security and liquidity that comes with that.”
“If you can now have that same functionality on Bitcoin, with 10 times the decentralization, then people are going to use Bitcoin,” Hex adds. “People who want to optimize for decentralization will use Bitcoin, and people who want performance or cheaper fees will use more performant chains like Solana.”
Growing value for miners and the entire Bitcoin system
With each halving, Bitcoin mining becomes less profitable. Making sure that miners are properly incentivized to continue providing security in the blockchain’s Proof-of-Work system is a major concern for the community.
Adding programmability to the Bitcoin base layer offers a major new way to increase Bitcoin transactions over the network, which leads to another way for miners to find value in continuing to provide security.
“A few months ago, Runes were making up 70% of the transactions on Bitcoin,” Hex says, and he sees the introduction of more functioning DeFi capabilities through Arch will be a major part of adding value for miners.
“If we want to see Bitcoin go up to these hilariously bullish Michael Saylor-type predictions, none of that is possible unless you have sustainable mining,” Hex says.
Why developers should consider building on Bitcoin with Arch
For Hex, the value of building on Bitcoin is a no-brainer. “Bitcoin is not just a store of value anymore, there is an entire ecosystem here. And what we’re seeing with Arch is the biggest unlock in terms of tech that we’ve ever seen in terms of base layer execution. Nothing has been built like this before.”
“You get to contribute to the biggest crypto brand in the world. You can build on other chains and they are over-saturated, horizontally scaling … or you can build on Arch with just a few teams and build some of the most critical infrastructure that Bitcoin has ever seen. To me, it’s one of the biggest opportunities out there.”
Calling all builders: The Arch Testnet is Live!
Read more about the testnet here, and sign up to earn rewards for building on Arch!