Start here — BATHRON in five minutes
Build contracts around facts Bitcoin can prove.
BATHRON is an open programmable settlement protocol for markets, instruments and applications anchored in Bitcoin.
BATHRON is running an experimental public testnet. Application building is open; Consensus-Operator admission is not yet open.
The core
Five things, and they compose:
- Bitcoin facts, verified in consensus. A script can assert that difficulty at a Bitcoin height was above or below a threshold, that a height was reached, that a median-time-past has passed, or that a Bitcoin transaction paying a given script was confirmed deep enough. Every node checks it. No designated oracle. → Bitcoin-verifiable contracts
- Programmable settlement. Covenants — including recursive ones — output constraints, hashlocks, timelocks, and signature verification over arbitrary messages. → Programmable settlement
- A settlement unit that nobody issues. M0 originates from consensus-verified Bitcoin destruction; M1 is obtained through the protocol's M0/M1 conversion and accounting rules, with conservation enforced in consensus. Neither is a redeemable claim on BTC: no peg, no reserve, no redemption promise. → Bitcoin is the final asset
- Finality in about a minute, one Consensus Operator one vote. → Production and finality
- Confidential transfers. Values can move without being published.
Who is who
| Role | Does |
|---|---|
| Consensus Operators | produce blocks and take part in finality |
| Settlement Providers | build settlement services on top of the protocol |
| Clearing Providers | orchestrate settlement conditions and flows |
| Liquidity Providers | hold inventory and publish prices |
| Market / Application Builders | create interfaces, instruments, markets, software |
| Users | choose their application, provider and counterparty |
No role is granted by the protocol except the first, and that one is not yet open.
What can be built
- Native to Bitcoin facts, no oracle: difficulty hedges, buried-payment escrows, time-bound agreements, prediction instruments over what Bitcoin proves.
- Programmable settlement: conditional cross-chain flows, covenant-constrained spends, DLC shapes with an external attestation.
- Markets: a pair appears because someone quotes it, not because a committee approved it.
- Needing external components: anything indexed on a price. BATHRON has no price oracle, no margin engine, no liquidation in consensus.
The full table, with what each thing depends on: → Application map
What is true today, and what is not
Anyone can build an application or propose a settlement flow without a listing committee. Native Bitcoin facts require no designated oracle. External prices and real-world events still require external attestations.
The protocol supplies settlement primitives; applications supply product logic, liquidity and interfaces. Markets are one application of the settlement layer, not the protocol itself.
The network being aimed at — several independent Consensus Operators, open admission, several independent providers — is described in The target open network. It is a target, not a description of today.
→ Status & claims prevails over every other page.