Altcoin News: How Many BTC Is Outside the Main Bitcoin Blockchain?

October 17, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

Currently, almost $77 million in Bitcoins is not available for use on the main network, since they are blocked for circulation on various sidechains, Hasu crypto blogger draws attention.

According to blockchain reviewers, as of October 17, 9,661 BTC or 0.054% of the total cryptocurrency emissions are located in the three main sidechains. Such sidechains allow users to interact with new assets by linking them to coins on the main network, which temporarily become unavailable for spending.

So, the Liquid network, launched by Blockstream startup in October 2018 and focused on servicing OTC operations, currently contains only 89 BTC.

At the same time, the Binance sidechain exchange, created by it to integrate Bitcoin into its non-custodian exchange Binance DEX, is used to store 9,001 BTC, which exist in the Binance Chain blockchain as BTCB tokens.

The Wrapped Bitcoin sidechain, launched at the beginning of the year as an ERC-20 format token for circulating synthesized Bitcoin on the Ethereum blockchain, contains 571 BTC.

At the same time, the leading solution for scaling the Lightning Network Bitcoin blockchain is not a sidechain and is a peer-to-peer communication protocol for transferring Bitcoins between nodes over the main network. According to the 1ml portal, Lightning Network channels are currently provided with 815.45 BTC.

In late September, the number of Lightning Network nodes exceeded 10,000 for the first time.

Author: Marko Vidrih