BOLT Association — Bitcoin Original Layer-1 Tokens
Read the Paper
Bitcoin · Original · Layer #1
Native tokens on
the original Bitcoin.
The BOLT Association stewards the BOLT Protocol — a Bitcoin<br>transaction latching mechanism that makes tokens verifiable in<br>constant time at Layer 1, with no secondary database<br>and no bound on scale.
How it works<br>Read the whitepaper →
O(1)token verification, regardless of history
2 UTXOsprove full provenance by induction
Layer 1no bridges, no off-chain indexes
The Protocol
What is BOLT?
BOLT — Bitcoin‑Original‑Layer #1‑Token —<br>is a token protocol built on a novel primitive: transaction latching .<br>A "Bolt" is a UTXO left behind so that a future transaction can inspect the<br>transaction that created it, linking the validity of multiple scripts together.
From that primitive, BOLT delivers tokens whose legitimacy is proven by<br>mathematical induction directly on chain — overcoming the<br>"Back‑To‑Genesis" problem that forces every other UTXO token protocol<br>to rely on off‑chain databases.
New to the idea? See the visual explanation at bolttokens.com →
Defined in “BOLT: A Bitcoin Transaction Latching Mechanism & Token Protocol”,<br>Frederick L. S. Honohan, February 2024 · UK patent application GB2318902.0 (pending).
The Problem
The Back-To-Genesis problem
Existing Bitcoin UTXO token protocols can't actually prove a token is real<br>without leaving the chain. Their rules piggy-back on Bitcoin's ledger, but the<br>ledger only notarises that actions happened — not that they were permitted.
Off-chain trust
Legitimacy proofs (Ordinals, 1-Sat) live in secondary databases. The chain doesn't verify them.
O(N) verification
Proving a token's link back to its minter needs the full transaction history — queries grow without bound.
History bloat
Each transfer must carry the transaction that created it, so transaction sizes grow on every hop.
Counterfeit risk
Man-in-the-middle token cloning is possible when miners can't attest a token's contents at Layer 1.
The Solution
Provenance proven by induction
BOLT uses nChain's PUSHTX / PUSHCTX technique to let a script<br>inspect the inputs and outputs of related transactions. With that, a token's<br>ancestry is rebuilt forward on every spend — and proven in constant time.
01<br>Latch
A Bolt UTXO ties its own unlocking to the simultaneous spend of the token UTXO — a multi-UTXO interdependency.
02<br>Carry the rules
Locking scripts hold the full protocol requirements and rebuild them into new outputs via scriptCode & hashOutputs.
03<br>Anchor ancestry
Each token records its genesisOutpoint, parentOutpoint and grandparentOutpoint, validated with hashPrevouts.
04<br>Prove by induction
Base cases plus the inductive step mean counterfeiting a token would require counterfeiting an ancestor — an impossibility.
The result: a token's full provenance is verifiable from just<br>two unspent outputs — O(1) regardless of history length —<br>using only chain headers and Merkle proofs. No secondary index. No database.
Technology
Built for worldwide scale
SPV-friendly
Tokens inherit every UTXO benefit, with no bound on scale. Simple Payment Verification all the way down.
Layer-1 native
Provenance lives in the ledger itself — no bridges, no synchronization domains, no compounding L2 complexity.
Automated settlement
Protocol actions can be finalised by anyone for a small fee — no signature required — enabling pub/sub automation.
Fungible & non-fungible
Mint balances and split, merge or swap them between issuers — or issue unique tokens. One primitive, many shapes.
🔒
Counterfeit-proof
The two-transaction requirement makes man-in-the-middle cloning mathematically impossible.
Bitcoin VM
Reliable Layer-1 memory pointers unlock the Bitcoin virtual machine for richer on-chain programs.
Why original Bitcoin (BSV) only
BOLT depends on an unbroken chain of digital signatures and the PUSHTX<br>technique. SegWit removed signatures from the BTC transaction ID calculation —<br>severing that chain — so BOLT cannot be deployed on BTC or BCH.<br>It works only on the original 2009 protocol, traded today as BSV.
ChainSinceSignature chainBOLT-capable
Original (BSV)2009IntactYes<br>Core (BTC)2017Severed (SegWit)No<br>Cash (BCH)2018IntactNo (CTOR)
Roadmap
Path to mainnet
Whitepaper
February 2024
BOLT latching mechanism & token protocol published; UK patent filed.
Teranode Testnet
~ June 2026
Reference implementation exercised against high-throughput Teranode test infrastructure.
Mainnet
~ July 2026
Production release of the BOLT Protocol on the original Bitcoin network.
The Association
Stewarding the protocol
The BOLT Association exists to advance, standardise and protect the BOLT<br>Protocol as open infrastructure for Layer-1 tokens — supporting research,<br>reference implementations and the developers building on it.
Standardise — maintain the protocol specification and reference scripts.
Educate — explain the latching primitive and its use-cases.
Enable — support builders...