Blockstream launches Simplicity smart contract language on Bitcoin L2 Liquid Network

Bitcoin infrastructure developer Blockstream has launched Simplicity, a new smart contract language, on the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin Layer 2 sidechain.

Simplicity is deliberately Turing-incomplete, omitting some common functions of programming languages such as recursion and unbounded loops, in the interest of making Simplicity smart contracts secure while remaining expressive.

Potential use cases for Simplicity include programmable vaults, Bitcoin-native smart banks, and decentralized governance that settles on Bitcoin, rather than necessitating wrapping assets or other off-chain proving mechanisms. The language's Rust-style tooling is intended to be easy to learn for existing Bitcoin developers.

"We designed Simplicity to enable expressive Bitcoin-native applications without inheriting the complexity and fragility of other smart contract ecosystems," said Andrew Poelstra, director of research at Blockstream, in a press release.

Simplicity launched on Thursday on the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin Layer 2 sidechain that claims over $3 billion in total value locked (TVL). Blockstream raised $210 million last year, in a round led by Fulgur Ventures, to further its positioning of the Liquid Network as the "de facto infrastructure" for tokenizing real-world assets within the Bitcoin ecosystem, The Block previously reported.

"Simplicity gives Bitcoin expressive smart contracting power, but without the security problems associated with VM-based chains," said Blockstream co-founder and CEO Dr. Adam Back. "It’s built from the ground up to be formally specified, secure, and efficient."

Blockstream also released SimplicityHL, a high-level language that compiles to Simplicity. The company pledges further updates to both Simplicity and SimplicityHL in the future.