The crypto ecosystem is bustling, trades are happening on every blockchain every hour on the hour, but taking a step back from the numbers of it all, we see there is a need to empower builders to innovate the future and a good step in this direction is creating more decentralized applications (Dapps).

Satoshi Nakamoto built Bitcoin to foster decentralization with a focus on payment settlements. This has inspired more people to innovate, and projects that have come after built on the idea of Bitcoin have bloomed into very innovative and successful projects. But for the most part, Bitcoin can only do payment settlements, while newer projects can do much more. Well, ALEX Lab is changing that.

Imagine layer one (L1) crypto projects are all continents, all distinct and unique but far apart. In the Ethereum continent, there are a lot of Dapps and cool L2 products that are thriving. On the Solana continent, they prioritize speed and efficiency and have cool Dapps, too, but what about Bitcoin? The Bitcoin continent just does payment settlement; to be fair, it does it well, but the continent needs Dapps and other cool stuff, too, this is what ALEX Lab wants to add to Bitcoin.

ALEX Lab, with the help of Stacks, empowers crypto builders to build on Bitcoin, making the creation of BRC20 tokens easier. With ALEX Lab, you do not have to shuffle between Bitcoin L1 and L2 projects; you can build on it and have your smart contracts run by Stacks. ALEX Lab is the all-in-one Bitcoin layer 2 solution.

What is ALEX Lab?

ALEX Lab is a financial layer sitting on top of Bitcoin while using Stacks for its computing and smart contracts. The project wants to populate the Bitcoin ecosystem. Bitcoin has gone too long only being used as a settlement layer, ALEX Lab is changing the narrative and is building an infrastructure on Bitcoin that developers can easily build on.

To note, before ALEX Lab, there were L2 projects on Bitcoin, but a huge percentage of them were meme coins that did not have the financial capabilities that ALEX Lab brings to the table. ALEX Lab is bringing higher decentralized finance to Bitcoin. With ALEX Lab, you can build with the L1(Bitcoin) and have your smart contracts seamlessly handled in the background by the L2(Stacks).

ALEX Lab has several great features that give it an edge. It has the Launch pad, but more than that, ALEX Lab also has a premier DEX for BRC20 and SIP10 tokens. Here, you can trade, swap, farm, etc. Along with all this, ALEX Lab has a cross-chain crypto bridge that connects to about nine blockchains.

History of ALEX Lab

ALEX Lab was created by people who know firsthand how bad a centralized economy can be. The CEO of ALEX Lab is Chiente Hsu, Ph.D. Before she started captaining this ship, she was a higher-up at Wall Street. Notably, she has been a global head of a financial institution two times, first at Credit Suisse, where she was the global head of alpha strategies, and then at Morgan Stanley, where she was the Global Head of Quantitative Investment Strategy Research.

Rachel Yu, M.S., is the co-founder of ALEX Lab. She was part of the Asian arm of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, where she spearheaded the institutional sales team in China. She has also built a highly functional machine and data-learning trading firm.

They put together a super team of 15 people to work on ALEX Lab. The team consists of experts in smart contract development, financial engineering, and crypto insiders.

ALEX Lab was put together in 2021, and it let people know that there is so much that can be done with BRC20, but they needed funding to make this statement a reality. By November of 2021, ALEX Lab raised 5.8 million USD, thanks to White Star Capital, their primary investor. In March of 2022, ALEX Lab launched officially, quickly followed by the launch of the ALEX Foundation.

How Does ALEX Lab work?

ALEX Lab does cool things with Bitcoin, but what powers it? Well, the answer is Stacks. Bitcoin is a great innovation, but it is archaic in some respects. It was not built with a programmable layer, which made scaling impossible until stacks came into the picture. Stacks handles smart contract processing for Bitcoin, making it possible for projects to be built on Bitcoin.

Stacks runs on its token, STX. It powers Stacks’ transaction processing, smart contract execution, and new product enrolment. Stacks uses a proof of transfer (PoX) mechanism to organize its miners and stackers (Stack’s version of staking). STX miners don’t mine; they exchange mined BTC for a chance to earn some STK.

This powers ALEX Lab to provide all the wonderful DeFi solutions it brings to the Bitcoin ecosystem. From its DEX to the swapping solution, all ALEX Lab solutions are tied to its goals and enrich the ecosystem, making ALEX Lab a top L2 on Bitcoin.

Main Features of ALEX Lab

ALEX Lab has been described as a Bitcoin super app. ALEX Lab has many features that make it indispensable in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each one of the features on ALEX Lab points to its goal of creating superb DeFi services for the Bitcoin ecosystem. They include:

Swapping

ALEX Lab is the leading DeFi solution available in the Bitcoin ecosystem. As part of the DeFi package, it offers a great swapping service. Because it is built on Bitcoin, it can only handle tokens in the ecosystem, but this DeFi solution remains important in the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The ALEX Lab Swap platform lets users swap up to 25 BRC tokens quickly and easily. Users go to the ALEX Lab Dapp, click on the swap option, select the token they want to swap, connect their wallet, and that’s it.

Bitcoin Oracle

The Bitcoin Oracle was made by ALEX, Domo, and the partners UniSat Lab, Hiro, and BIS to protect the transactions within the Bitcoin ecosystem. The Bitcoin Oracle is a consensus layer for every off-chain computation mechanism dependent on Bitcoin data. This seems like a mouthful, but basically, what this means is that the Bitcoin Oracle enforces the rules of the Network rules. The Oracle uses smart contracts to verify the consensus.

Bitcoin Bridge

The way the crypto bridge works is interesting. It lets you use token A when all you have is token B. Each crypto network can have multiple tokens in it, so you could have Bitcoin on the Polygon network. A bridge allows you to move tokens easily across networks. There are centralized bridges that use pools and smart contact bridges that use code.

A bridge has validators that create cryptographic proof that the BTC and ETH have the same value, and if you want to stop using the bridge, the validators will also help confirm your tokens before they are unlocked. The ALEX Lab Bitcoin bridge would give users a two-way bridge between Bitcoin and its L2 projects.

Launchpad

The ALEX Lab launchpad lets crypto projects sell to early investors. Projects need a launchpad and ALEX Lab is happy to provide this service. A launchpad helps projects secure funding, they can launch on the ALEX DEX and then can sell to investors without having to open up the sale to the public.

The ALEX Lab launchpad is based on an equitable lottery system. The lottery is on-chain and off-chain. The funds are handled on the chain, including the refund to those who did not win the lottery. The actual lottery will happen off-chain as it requires a lot of resources. Once the winner is selected off-chain, it brings them on-chain for verification.

What is ALEX?

ALEX is a governance token on ALEX Lab. This token was not made to be used as a digital currency but more as a representation of your stake in ALEX Lab. However, its status as a governance token does not stop holders from turning a profit by holding or trading it. One popular way an ALEX holder can profit is through staking, which involves voluntarily locking ALEX tokens for a fixed period at a steady ‘interest’ rate, often known as the APR.

ALEX Tokenomics

Source: medium.com

token launched with 1 billion ALEX tokens that were distributed shortly after they launched. The lion’s share of 50% of the tokens went to the community for community staking of liquidity tokens to earn ALEX. 30% of the tokens went to the founding team, employees, early investors, and advisors. Lastly, 20% went to future endeavors, early adopters, and the ALEX Lab Foundation for the community reserve pool.

Take Action on ALEX

One of the best places to get a token is a centralized exchange like Gate.io. To get some ALEX, just search for it on Gate.io. You will see a lot of information on it, and then you can decide to buy ALEX at a market of your choosing.

Is ALEX Lab a Good Investment?

ALEX Lab is a revolutionary decentralized project that will redefine our view of Bitcoin and its growing Layer 2 network. Its great features give it an edge over other projects.

At this growth rate, ALEX Labs is poised to become a force to be reckoned with in the crypto industry, it is forging on with decentralization as its watchword. But with every investment, there are concerns so you should do your own research before you invest.