Strata

Alpen @AlpenLabs · Apr 2, 2025

Today, we're unveiling the name of our platform's execution layer: Alpen.

We're taking a meaningful step in our roadmap to make Bitcoin the foundation for financial innovation. 🧵

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David Seroy 🏔️ Verified account @david_seroy · Oct 15, 2025

🧵 Alpha leak on Bitcoin + ZK:

This is the first step in Glock (💥🔫) becoming a shared ZK verifier for Bitcoin. No token, no rent-seeking, just an open-source public good.

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Verifying ZK proofs on Bitcoin unlocks trust-minimized (and eventually trustless) bridges, the holy grail of Bitcoin scaling and interoperability.

That’s been the focus of BitVM teams over the past 1–2 years. But once you solve the technical challenge, you hit a social one: fragmentation.

If 25 teams launch their own “BitVM27” bridges, each trying to win the standard, you recreate Ethereum’s mess: AggLayer vs Superchain vs Aligned vs Elastic Chains. You need an interop solution for the interop solutions!

The problem is everyone wants to control the stack and monetize it. But nobody wants to be locked into someone else’s stack and pay rent.

The only viable path is a neutral, shared verifier one no one controls and everyone can trust. But that requires collaboration from the best implementation(s) and a willingness to forgo short-term incentives.

That’s what Glock (💥🔫) aims to be.

We at @AlpenLabs will be the primary maintainer and steward of it, but Glock will remain ecosystem-agnostic. No token. No tax. Just a verifier anyone can plug into.

By removing rent-seeking, Glock makes it far easier for teams with conflicting interests to coordinate on shared infra. That’s the best-case scenario for Bitcoin: fewer silos, more composability.

Example: Starknet can go Bitcoin L1 → Glock → Starknet, without touching Alpen. Same for us: Bitcoin L1 → Glock → Alpen. Same for any other team.

The upside? Every team retains full sovereignty, execution, sequencing, DA, while gaining optionality (but not necessarily the obligation) to interoperate.

And that’s what this relationship between @StarkWareLtd and @AlpenLabs signals: two of the strongest research teams putting egos aside to build public goods for Bitcoin.

This is how we avoid Ethereum’s trap: shared ZK infra on Bitcoin that unlocks deep composability without compromising sovereignty.

Glock is the coordination layer. A public good for serious Bitcoin infrastructure. 💥🔫

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