Bitcoin integration

This is the load-bearing chapter. Everything BATHRON claims — no oracle, no federation, honest issuance — reduces to one capability: the chain sees Bitcoin, inside consensus.

Headers

Bitcoin block headers are carried onto BATHRON in ordinary transactions and stored in an in-consensus header database. Every node independently validates each header's proof-of-work, difficulty adjustment and accumulated chainwork — exactly like a Bitcoin SPV client, except the client is the consensus. Reorgs on Bitcoin are followed by chainwork, like any Bitcoin node would.

SPV

With the header chain in consensus, any Bitcoin transaction can be proven with a Merkle branch: the proof shows the transaction is included in a block buried under the accumulated work of the real Bitcoin chain. No one attests to this — every node checks it.

Burn

The entry point for all value. Bitcoin is sent to a provably unspendable output, tagged with a destination on BATHRON. After enough confirmations, an SPV proof of the burn mints the same amount — one burned satoshi becomes one satoshi, with no issuer and no discretion. → Monetary invariants

Proofs in scripts

The same machinery is exposed to programs. A covenant can require proof that a specific Bitcoin payment is confirmed — and release funds the moment it is:

Alice pays on Bitcoin ──▶ proof lands on BATHRON ──▶ covenant releases
                         (Merkle proof, checked
                          by every node)

This is the primitive under the flagship use case: a Bitcoin fact unlocks a contract, verified by consensus, with no operator, oracle or custodian.

Difficulty, time, chainwork

Scripts can also read Bitcoin's difficulty, timestamps and accumulated work from the in-consensus header chain. This is what makes an oracle-free miner hedge possible: the settlement condition is Bitcoin's own difficulty, not anyone's price feed. → Miner hedging

What the link is — and is not

The link is one-directional and honest. BATHRON can read Bitcoin (headers, proofs) and consume Bitcoin (burns, irreversible). It cannot move native BTC or trigger a Bitcoin transaction. The only fully-trustless direction is BTC → BATHRON; the return to native BTC goes through an open market of Settlement Providers, atomically. BATHRON settles against Bitcoin; it does not command it.