This enables instant execution, preconfirmation, and programmable contracts while preserving Bitcoin’s security, settlement finality, and unilateral exit guarantees. This section focuses on conceptual foundations and concrete application patterns that are either already usable today or are directly motivated by Arkade’s current execution model.
Unlike the Experimental tab, this section avoids speculative language design and instead builds intuition for how Arkade works and what you can build with it.
What This Section Is About
The goal of this section is to help you build a mental model for:- How Bitcoin’s UTXO and Script model works
- Why Bitcoin L1 alone is insufficient for real-time, composable applications
- How Arkade’s VTXO-based offchain layer overcomes these constraints
- How common payment and contract patterns can be implemented on Arkade today or in the near term
Conceptual Foundations
These pages explain the underlying execution and contract model Arkade builds upon:Background (UTXO paradigm)
Introduces the core building blocks:- Bitcoin Script and the UTXO model
- Mempool behavior, fee markets, and latency constraints
- Why onchain execution is unsuitable for interactive applications
- How Arkade’s offchain execution layer and batch settlement model work
Smart Contracts in the UTXO Model
Explains how smart contracts work without global state:- Commit–reveal patterns and one-time spend semantics
- Why enforcing state transitions is difficult on Bitcoin L1
- How transaction introspection, Taproot, and key tweaking enable covenants
- How Arkade’s VTXO paradigm enables stateful, composable contracts
Contracts & Applications
The following pages focus on practical contract patterns and integrations built on Arkade’s execution model.Lightning Swaps
Integrate the Lightning Network with Arkade using submarine swaps:- Move funds between Lightning and Arkade
- Receive Lightning payments into Arkade wallets
- Pay Lightning invoices from Arkade balances
Lightning Swaps: Bridge Arkade and Lightning using submarine swaps
Spilman Channels
Build scalable, unidirectional payment channels using VTXOs:- Offchain incremental payments
- Cooperative and unilateral close paths
- Timelock-enforced safety without onchain funding
Spilman Channels: Virtual payment channels on Arkade
Chain Swaps (Coming Soon)
Trust-minimized cross-chain swaps using Arkade as an execution layer.Oracle DLCs (Coming Soon)
Discreet Log Contracts using external oracles for conditional payouts.Escrow Contracts (Coming Soon)
Programmable Bitcoin escrow patterns for marketplaces and P2P trades.How This Relates to the Experimental Section
This section deliberately focuses on execution models and application patterns, not language or opcode design. If you want to explore future programmability and design space, including:- Arkade Script (a proposed high-level Bitcoin contract language)
- Compiler architecture
- New Tapscript opcode concepts
- Advanced, research-oriented contracts (AMMs, synthetic assets, prediction markets)