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Bitcoin Data GuideBitcoin Reference

Research · Cross-chain

What it means to take bitcoin off its own chain

Bitcoin's base layer is deliberately narrow: it settles transactions and does little else. Everything built on top of it — wrapped tokens, payment channels, sidechains, bridges — is an attempt to extend what the coin can do, and each attempt moves some part of the trust somewhere else. This sub-hub collects the pages that work through where that trust goes, what a holder is actually relying on, and how the arrangements differ from holding the coin itself. It also sets the other networks against each other on architecture, execution, scaling, finality and data, because those comparisons are usually made against Bitcoin and rarely on their own terms.

The phrase "bitcoin on another chain" covers several arrangements that are not equivalent. A wrapped token is a liability of an issuer who holds the underlying coin, and the holder's claim depends on that issuer's solvency and honesty. A payment channel is a contract enforced by Bitcoin's own script, and its worst case is a delayed on-chain settlement rather than a loss of the coin. A sidechain runs its own consensus and its own miners, and the peg that connects it to Bitcoin is the part that carries the risk. The pages below keep those distinctions sharp rather than treating them as variations on one idea.

The architecture pages below compare Ethereum, Solana and the Internet Computer against each other rather than against Bitcoin, and they cross-link to the Bitcoin-centric comparisons elsewhere on the site instead of repeating them. Every claim is drawn from the relevant specification or documentation, and the status of each mechanism — deployed, proposed, or in development — is stated on the page. Nothing here is a forecast, and no comparison is a recommendation.

Architecture and Execution

Architecture and Execution

The altcoin networks are usually compared against Bitcoin, and rarely against each other. These pages set Ethereum, Solana and the Internet Computer side by side on the questions that decide how an application is built: where a program's state lives, how a block is executed, and what an upgrade has to preserve.

Scaling, Finality and Data

Scaling, Finality and Data

How a network grows, when a transaction is settled, and what a node is expected to store are three different questions that are often answered together. These pages separate them, and compare the four networks on each one rather than on a single scoreboard.

Representations of Bitcoin

Representations of Bitcoin

A wrapped bitcoin is a claim on a coin held by someone else, and the trust that claim requires is the whole story. These pages set the token against the coin itself and work through the custodian and merchant roles behind it.

Layers and Sidechains

Layers and Sidechains

A layer two settles its activity on Bitcoin's base chain; a sidechain runs its own consensus behind a peg. The distinction decides what a user is actually trusting, and these pages draw it carefully.

The reference pages behind the comparison

The pages above explain the arrangements. These hold the underlying record and the methodology, for when you want to check a figure or follow a source.