Starknet will collaborate with Alpen Labs to create a highly decentralized bridge between Bitcoin and Starknet. This is a significant step for Bitcoin holders who want to generate yield opportunities for BTC without sacrificing security and self-custody. At the same time, it symbolizes @Starknet's key milestone towards becoming the Bitcoin DeFi Layer! Let Bitcoin truly participate in DeFi and unleash its potential in the safest and most trust-minimized way. Why Glock? Glock is Alpen's latest innovative achievement, built on their previous research on BitVM and Bitcoin verification. Glock employs a verification protocol based on garbled circuits, allowing Bitcoin to perform off-chain computations and then securely bind back to Bitcoin itself through cryptography. It can achieve up to a 1000x reduction in on-chain costs while allowing for more complex BTC conditional spending without the limitations of Script. The key to this architecture is: BTC on Bitcoin is locked, and only when it is burned on another chain, the conditions allow for unlocking. Compared to today's cross-chain bridges that rely on multi-signatures or certificates, Glock allows Bitcoin itself to check the bridging conditions, eliminating the need to trust intermediaries. This means that the process of bridging BTC to Starknet will become completely transparent and secure, opening up broader BTCFi and payment scaling application scenarios for holders. Starknet becomes the execution layer for Bitcoin Alpen's Strata layer is responsible for ensuring the security of BTC deposited into the Alpen EVM chain. Through this collaboration, our goal is to make Starknet another execution layer for Strata, allowing BTC to operate under the same security assumptions whether flowing to Alpen or Starknet. This enables builders and users to freely choose the most suitable execution layer based on their needs, thereby promoting the free flow of BTC assets across multi-chain ecosystems. Next steps Alpen is completing the final stage of development for Glock, this innovative protocol based on garbled circuits will significantly reduce on-chain burdens. Starknet and Alpen will be among the first chains to adopt Glock for secure BTC bridging and interoperability construction. Building a more secure Bitcoin bridge is no easy task; it requires deep cryptographic research and engineering innovation. But we believe that with each collaboration with Alpen, we are getting closer to a financial ecosystem supported by Bitcoin's security that is interconnected and prosperous. The future of Bitcoin is no longer just a store of value; it will be the cornerstone of the entire trustless financial world. Starknet is ready to lead this transformation. Stay tuned.