SPV verification

How BATHRON sees Bitcoin without an oracle — the machinery behind Bitcoin integration.

The header database

Bitcoin headers enter via TX_BTC_HEADERS transactions and live in a consensus-maintained database. Every node validates, per header: proof-of-work against the encoded target, the difficulty adjustment schedule, timestamp rules, and accumulated chainwork. Anyone can submit headers; invalid ones are consensus-rejected.

Following the real chain

• Reorgs are handled by chainwork, like a Bitcoin node: a heavier branch replaces a lighter one, with full undo support.
• Canonical checkpoints: headers at fixed anchor heights must match pinned hashes of the real Bitcoin chain — a from-scratch fake chain, even a well-formed one, cannot be grafted in.
• A reorg floor: no reorg is accepted below a pinned checkpoint or below a burn that has already minted — an accepted burn cannot be un-happened.

Proving a transaction

A Bitcoin transaction is proven with a Merkle branch to a block header in the database, plus a burial requirement (confirmations of chainwork on top). Verification is pure computation — hash the branch, compare the root, check the depth — performed by every node.

Two consumers

The same rules serve both — there is no privileged path and no bypass, including at genesis: the very first mint was SPV-verified like every one since.