Surge

Surge.build operates as a composable MetaLayer on the Bitcoin network, designed to address the blockchain's inherent scalability challenges. The company provides a foundational layer for developers to launch decentralized applications (dApps) and rollups, aiming to make transactions for use cases like DeFi, gaming, and micropayments economically viable by maintaining low fees. This is achieved by anchoring directly to Bitcoin's security infrastructure while managing block consensus, interoperability, and data availability on the base layer.

The company was co-founded by CEO Yash and CTO Punith. Yash, a computer science graduate, began his career as a full-stack JavaScript developer before co-founding and running a product studio for several years, an experience that honed his entrepreneurial and product development skills. Punith is a tech specialist with deep expertise in multiple programming languages, including Go and Rust. Their journey into Web3 began in July 2023, and a pivotal moment occurred at the ETH Denver hackathon in 2024, where their focus on Bitcoin led to the development of cross-chain liquidity swaps and a bridge, solidifying the concept for Surge.

Surge's core technology tackles the issue of state bloat on the Bitcoin blockchain, a problem exacerbated by high-fee transactions from solutions like Ordinals. Its architecture routes and aggregates zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) from the various rollups and dApps built on it, significantly reducing the data footprint and cost of attesting state on the Bitcoin mainchain. This modular design, inspired by Cosmos, uses CometBFT for Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus to ensure high performance and security. Key components include Verifiers that specialize in zk-proof verification and Integrated Signers that use a DKLs23 threshold signature scheme to maintain a decentralized network. Developers can utilize the Surge Integration Kit to deploy their applications, inheriting Bitcoin's security guarantees.

Initially positioning itself as a rollup-as-a-service, Surge has since broadened its vision to be the ultimate scaling metalayer for the entire Bitcoin ecosystem. The business model is centered on providing the infrastructure and tools for other teams to build on Bitcoin. This includes a developer 'Playground' with a custom signet, wallet, and explorer, and a tool called BRIEF (Bitcoin Rollup Inscription Estimated Fee) for estimating anchoring costs. Surge fosters an ecosystem through partnerships with entities like Gevulot for ZK proof generation, Nubit for data availability, and RiscZero for ZK-powered rollups. Keywords: Bitcoin scaling, BTCFi, Layer 2, MetaLayer, rollups, dApps, zero-knowledge proofs, ZKPs, decentralized applications, DKLs signature scheme, block consensus, data availability, CometBFT, Yash, Punith, Bitcoin state bloat, low-fee transactions, crypto infrastructure, blockchain developers, ZK aggregation