Bitcoin Can Take Inspiration from Chia Offer Files

Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction (PSBT) trades are coming to Bitcoin with DEXs like Orders.Exchange to facilitate trading ordinals and BRC-20s.

For a glimpse of what the future of BTC could look like, check out #Chia Offer Files, which are a more advanced version of PSBT with an already existing P2P ecosystem.

Someone wanting to trade their digital assets for other digital assets can propose a trade by creating an Offer File. This plain text file contains one half of a signed transaction. Anyone willing to take the other side just adds their signed half and submits to mempool.

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

The transaction is completed atomically on-chain with no chance of either side getting rugged.

Since it’s just text, you can share it easily. DMs, tweet, bulletin board, snail mail etc. Even a QR code! This image is an Offer File for my PFP NFT.

You can even get more creative with how you share Offer Files. Here’s a stylized QR code that links to a public pastebin of that same Offer File.

With Chia’s NFT standard, royalties to creators are also enforced on-chain when NFTs are trustlessly traded via Offer Files!

Services to discover Offer Files like dexie, MintGarden, and XCH.fm have emerged to organize and make these Offer Files searchable. These are not intermediary marketplaces that take a cut, they just help match buyers with sellers.

Compared to PSBTs, Offer Files offer more advanced capability due to the programmable nature of Chia smart coins with ChiaLisp. For example, Offers can auto-expire after a certain number of blocks, which can potentially redefine how DEXs work.

As Bitcoin dives into ordinal-style PSBTs offers, I expect its ecosystem will rapidly learn and relearn a lot of what Chia is already offering. One thing holding Bitcoin back is lack of a robust scripting language, but even that could change!

Finally there’s a lack of standards for digital assets on BTC beyond social consensus. Looking at the design it seems like BTC is forcing a square peg into a round hole. Plus not having things like BLS makes true Offer Files on BTC more difficult.