Why Bitcoin

Plasma is built on Bitcoin because its unmatched security and decentralization provide the ideal foundation for global stablecoin settlement, while Bitcoin itself stands as the premier store-of-value asset. Bitcoin’s robust, trustless network provides an immutable, tamper-resistant layer of security that anchors our system, ensuring that Plasma is built on the most resilient foundation.

While stablecoins represent tokenized fiat money, Bitcoin embodies key monetary properties—scarcity, decentralization, and global acceptance—that position it as the apex saving asset. Unlike fiat currencies, which are subject to inflation and centralization, Bitcoin is a non-sovereign, trustless asset whose value proposition grows stronger over time. As traditional payment infrastructures evolve, stablecoins will serve as the preferred medium for everyday transactions, while Bitcoin will increasingly be used as a store of value. This intersection of onchain stablecoin and Bitcoin liquidity will enable novel financial applications and use cases that were previously limited.

Plasma periodically checkpoints its state diffs on Bitcoin because anchoring on Bitcoin delivers permissionless finality, stronger censorship resistance, and a universally verifiable source of truth. By embedding cryptographic summaries of Plasma’s state into the Bitcoin L1, any participant (including SPV‑style light clients) can independently verify the entire Plasma history without trusting Plasma validators. Reversing a checkpointed state would require reorganizing Bitcoin itself—making tampering computationally impractical given Bitcoin’s Proof‑of‑Work security.

By building Plasma as a Bitcoin sidechain, we merge the security and decentralization of Bitcoin with purpose-built stablecoin functionality. This creates a platform where the best elements of both worlds converge: a settlement layer anchored by the most secure blockchain and an execution environment optimized for high-throughput, low-latency stablecoin payments.

We at Plasma, along with our partners at Bitfinex, have long been advocates for Bitcoin. Building on Bitcoin was a conscious, long-term design decision. Stablecoins will be incredibly beneficial for Bitcoin as an asset, and we’re committed to contributing to that future.

In the words of Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex: “With strong growth in both supply and users, we are entering a new phase of mainstream adoption for stablecoins. To meet this challenge, it’s more important than ever to have secure, decentralized, and scalable infrastructure in place. Plasma is designed to provide these essential rails by leveraging Bitcoin as its security layer.”