Franklin Templeton Is Actively Monitoring These 5 Areas of the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) Ecosystems

The investment giant says it is enthusiastic about Bitcoin developments following the approval of BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier this year.

Asset management giant Franklin Templeton has revealed that it is actively monitoring five key areas within the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem.

Following the approval of BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier this year, the firm has expressed enthusiasm for developments within the crypto space.

According to Franklin Templeton, the five areas of interest include Bitcoin layer-2s, restaking/native yield primitives, ordinals, decentralized finance (DeFi)/runes and BTC’s OP_CAT proposal.

Bitcoin ordinals, introduced in April 2023, enable users to inscribe digital data, such as images and videos, to a single satoshi, or an individual unit of BTC, to create the equivalent of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Bitcoin network.

Runes, on the other hand, is a protocol that aims to enhance the efficiency of creating fungible tokens on Bitcoin.

Finally, OP_CAT is a scripting feature that BTC’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, spiked back in 2010. However, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) aims to reintroduce the feature, as noted by the crypto exchange OKX.

“OP_CAT is a Bitcoin feature that expands its scripting abilities. It combines data into a single output — a process in programming known as concatenation — making transactions simpler and allowing for the development of complex smart contracts.”

Franklin Templeton also highlighted its interest in the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem.

“Investing in ETH represents ownership in the Ethereum blockchain, the largest decentralized ecosystem. We are seeing continued innovation across the modular stack. Areas we are excited about include:

Parallel Execution

Restaking Primitives

Alternative [Data Availability]

Blob utilization post EIP 4844″

Parallel execution is a capability that allows the network to handle multiple transactions simultaneously, aiming to enhance scalability, as noted by CoinGecko.

Data availability pertains to “the confidence a user can have that the data required to verify a block is really available to all network participants,” according to Ethereum.org.

Caldera, a rollup deployment platform, explains that alternative data availability involves a separate layer where blockchains can maintain access to relevant data.

“Blobs” are dedicated data storage spaces designed to reduce transaction fees, according to Etherscan.