What is Mintlayer?

Mintlayer is a layer 2 protocol designed to create a decentralized finance ecosystem on the Bitcoin blockchain. It aims to facilitate the deployment of smart contracts, enable atomic swaps, and support decentralized applications (dApps) without intermediaries. Founded by a team focusing on leveraging the Bitcoin and Lightning Network, Mintlayer's architecture allows for direct swaps between native Bitcoin and tokenized assets, eliminating the need for wrapped or federated tokens.

The network features Turing incomplete smart contracts to enhance predictability and reduce the risk of contract failures. Mintlayer supports multi-token transfers in a single transaction and includes an access control list for improved compliance with security tokens. It integrates the Lightning Network to facilitate high transaction speeds and has programmable pools aimed at improving tokenomics while minimizing UTXO pollution.