FAQ
Why burn Bitcoin?
Because it is the only way to back a unit with Bitcoin trustlessly. A bridge needs custodians; a federation needs trust; a burn needs neither — it is irreversible, verifiable by SPV, and requires no one's permission or honesty. One burned satoshi backs one unit, forever, with no issuer to default.
Why not Ethereum?
Bridged BTC on Ethereum is custodial (a wrapper someone can freeze or lose), there is no base-layer privacy, and you price everything through a volatile gas token. BATHRON's unit is the satoshi, backing is burned BTC with no bridge, and private cash is built in.
Why not Liquid?
Liquid is a federation: a fixed set of functionaries custodies the peg and can censor. BATHRON has no federation — Bitcoin facts are verified by SPV inside consensus, and the return to native BTC is an open market, not a multisig.
Why no token?
Because nothing needs one. Fees are paid in satoshis, security is funded by fees (block_reward = 0), there is no treasury and no premine. A token would add a speculation layer and a conflict of interest — and remove nothing.
Why Settlement Providers?
Because the protocol cannot move native BTC — nobody can, trustlessly, from another chain. So the design refuses to fake it: native liquidity comes from an open market of providers competing on fees, settling atomically, custodying nothing. → Settlement Providers
Why private?
Settlement is commercially unusable if competitors can read your counterparties, sizes and treasury. Privacy here is a property of good settlement, not an ideology — amounts are shielded; the monetary invariants stay publicly verifiable.
Can I become a Settlement Provider?
Yes — that is the intended path, and there is no whitelist. The reference implementation publishes with the public testnet; contact us to be early.
Can I run a validator?
Yes. Validators are masternodes backed by burned-BTC collateral. On the current private testnet the operator set is closed; it opens progressively with the public testnet. → Consensus
Is it experimental?
Yes. Private testnet running, public testnet next, no mainnet. The consensus surface is frozen before any mainnet, and external audits gate the launch. We would rather under-promise here and let the running system speak.