Willem Shroé, CEO of Botanix Labs, on Building a Bitcoin EVM L2, The Future of Bitcoin, and Spiderchain | Ep. 429

Willem Schroé, CEO and Co-founder of Botanix Labs, joined the Cryptonews Spotlight Podcast to discuss how Bitcoin can go beyond its store-of-value status

Willem Schroé, CEO and co-founder of Botanix Labs, joined the Cryptonews Spotlight Podcast to discuss how Bitcoin can go beyond its store-of-value status, the development of Spiderchain as a decentralized Bitcoin EVM Layer 2, and why ZK rollups don’t work on Bitcoin. In this wide-ranging conversation, Willem laid out a future where Bitcoin becomes not just digital gold, but the financial backbone of Web3.

Here are some key takeaways from the interview:

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Today, in the people’s minds, Bitcoin is digital gold. But why would we have digital gold if you already have actual gold in the world? Bitcoin can be so much more and will be so much more. It’s just first principle logical thinking, and the question is… how is it gonna look like? And…

We absolutely believe Bitcoin is the winning money and EVM is the winning virtual machine. So we’re bringing that. We’re taking the EVM and we built that on Spiderchain.

We’re taking the best parts of both blockchains and merging them into one, which is quite ironic, because a lot of people say that you cannot copy code. But we’re not copying, we’re merging the best parts and making something new.

* We're taking the best parts of both blockchains and merging them into one, which is quite ironic, because a lot of people say that you cannot copy code. But we're not copying, we're merging the best parts and making something new.

* If you believe today that there are ZK Rollups on Bitcoin, then I don't know what else you’re into. Bitcoin doesn’t have the programmability, it doesn’t have introspection, and there’s no place to post data availability.

* Bitcoin is already there. On its base layer, it’s the best money ever made.

* We want to launch on day one with a decentralized subset of operators spread around the world.

* You’ll pay gas fees and transaction fees actually using Bitcoin. That’s also where the Bitcoin yield comes from.

* We’re not connected to Ethereum, Solana, or anything else. We’re purely connected to Bitcoin.

* BitVM and Rollups go for centralized. We go for a decentralized EVM.

* We’ve frozen our code, we’re going through the audit right now. Then the next step is mainnet.

* Year 1, 2, 3 is expanding the federation – from 15 to 100, to 200, and then to thousands.

* Five years from now, you’ll be able to use Bitcoin as money everywhere. Pay Lightning invoices from your MetaMask.

* Every two years, everybody tells Visa and Apple something different. Solana, Ethereum, Move… Bitcoin is the constant.

* You can borrow stablecoins against your Bitcoin. You can get Bitcoin yield. You can pay Lightning invoices from your MetaMask.

* All the different building blocks are there. In 2025, we’ll look back and say that’s when Bitcoin turned into money.

Listen to the full interview with Willem Schroé, CEO and co-founder of Botanix Labs.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of cryptocurrency, innovation knows no bounds. As the premier cryptocurrency and a store of value, Bitcoin has captured the attention of millions worldwide. However, despite its strengths, Bitcoin’s lack of smart contract functionality has limited its ability to serve as the primary blockchain for decentralized applications (dapps).

On the other hand, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, is renowned for its smart contract capabilities, enabling the development of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and a wide range of dapps.

Now, a new project, codenamed Spiderchain, is aiming to combine the best aspects of both Bitcoin and Ethereum into a single, powerful Layer 2 (L2) blockchain.

Developed by Botanix Labs, Spiderchain will be a decentralized EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) L2 secured by Bitcoin, offering smart contracts, dapps, and programmability, all powered by the Bitcoin base layer.

In an interview with Cryptonews, Willem Schroé, CEO and co-founder of Botanix Labs, discussed how Bitcoin can go beyond its status as digital gold, the development of Spiderchain as a decentralized Bitcoin EVM L2, and why ZK rollups don’t work on Bitcoin.

In this conversation, Schroé envisioned a future where Bitcoin becomes not just digital gold but the financial backbone of Web3, encompassing everything from payments to lending and investment.

He also challenged claims that ZK rollups can function properly on Bitcoin, calling them fundamentally misaligned with Bitcoin’s architecture and ethos.

According to Schroé, Bitcoin’s role should remain focused