01 Project Overview
TNA Protocol is a protocol for issuing and managing Bitcoin domain name assets Tapname. Tapname is a non-fungible asset built on the Lightning Network's Taproot asset protocol and is supported by Lightning Labs.
Official website: https://tna-btc.com/
Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/TNA_Protocol
Whitepaper: https://tna-btc.gitbook.io/tna-whitepaper-2/
Medium: https://medium.com/@tna-protocol
02 Project Background
With the development of Bitcoin ecology, Bitcoin L2 network has gradually become popular, and on-chain applications have blossomed everywhere, but there are still gaps in infrastructure, such as the following two aspects:
Domain name/identity: As the BTC halving significantly reduces miners’ income, the development of BTC ecosystem diversity is an inevitable trend. The issuance of diverse assets, as well as the development of second-layer network assets and smart contracts, will lead to more user interaction behaviors. User account and asset management will also become complicated. The Bitcoin ecosystem urgently needs a unified domain name/identity system to improve the user experience.
Multi-network DA standard framework: As network design becomes increasingly complex, networks and new asset issuance become more numerous, and the simple Bitcoin network does not have data availability and management frameworks for new activities and new states, the superposition of various data structures will make the ecosystem complex and difficult to unify, and it is very easy to create a data island situation. The on-chain and off-chain data generated by the Bitcoin ecosystem need to be verified and managed by each other to ensure the security of users' assets and make the network composable and orderly.
03 Domain Name System
In terms of domain name definition, TNA is similar to the domain name systems in various blockchains that support smart contracts, such as ENS. User-registered domain names can provide Bitcoin and Lightning Network users with account names with readable identifiers, such as mapping satoshi.btc to a Bitcoin wallet address, or pointing to Twitter links and file contents stored in IPFS.
TNA differs from other domain name systems in that:
As a native Bitcoin asset, Tapname is compatible with on-chain applications in the Bitcoin ecosystem (Bitcoin mainnet and L2), such as payment processing, social networking, and community management, improving transaction simplicity and interoperability within the Bitcoin network and providing a more user-friendly and accessible experience.
Tapnames are programmable, a feature that enables asset owners to continuously update their Tapnames with customized financial and other features, thereby increasing value for owners and reducing reliance on external networks and services, enhancing the autonomy and flexibility of Tapnames in a decentralized framework;
Tapname incorporates the privacy properties of the UTXO model to provide an enhanced account management experience in a multi-asset Bitcoin environment.
In January, TNA launched a domain name auction. With extremely high market participation, the total bid volume exceeded 610 BTC. Lunch Investment @wufantouzi spent more than 5 BTC to bid for the btc.btc domain name.
04 Potential Use Cases
The uses of Tapname include but are not limited to:
Identity layer for the Bitcoin ecosystem: As the Bitcoin network grows, Tapnames will serve as a basic identity layer that will support a wide range of applications;
Decentralized domain name: Tapnames can be used as a decentralized domain name, pointing to a specified link or file;
Simplified payment addresses: Replacing complex Bitcoin addresses with easy-to-remember Tapnames can simplify transactions, reduce errors, and enhance the overall user experience;
Smart Contract Integration: Integrating Tapnames into smart contracts enables customized transactions on the Bitcoin network;
On-chain reputation system: Tapnames can support reputation-based services in the Bitcoin community;
Messaging and Communication Enhancement: When integrated with social and messaging applications, Tapnames makes communications more personal and intuitive;
Subdomains for organizational efficiency: Organizations can use Tapnames to create subdomains for different departments or services, streamlining internal and external affairs;
Asset Management and Identity Verification: Tapnames facilitates efficient asset management across the Bitcoin network and provides reliable identity verification for a variety of applications.
05 TNACore
While launching the domain name system, TNA is also working on Bitcoin DA (data availability).
TNACore is TNA's solution to the DA problem in the Bitcoin ecosystem. To enhance the interoperability of Bitcoin with other networks and dApps, TNACore proposes standards for cross-network execution of data availability, prevents data silos, and balances asset security and costs. TNACore will work closely with Bitcoin DA solutions such as Nubit and develop together.
TNA's domain name resolution service complements the DA solution, providing users with the best on-chain interoperability experience and providing data availability solutions for Bitcoin mainnet/L2 assets.
06 Team/Partners
6.1 Core Team
TNA's co-founder and COO used to work as an analyst on Wall Street. He entered the Web3 field in 2020 and founded an RWA DeFi project that expanded to Africa and Southeast Asia. He has since developed a Socialfi project with a domain name system.
TNA's CTO worked as an engineer at Microsoft, entered the crypto space in 2017, and built one of the earliest L1 blockchains, as well as a DeFi protocol.
Other members of the team have work experience at top CEXs and TikTok.
6.2 Core Partners
TNA's partners include Nubit, Polyhedra, Merlin, Bsquared, etc. It has also cooperated with wallets such as Math Wallet, TP Wallet, Bitget Wallet, OKX Wallet, etc. in the promotion and use of domain names. In addition, the project has cooperated with communities such as Slerf across ecosystems.
07 Roadmap
Currently, the first phase of the roadmap has been completed, and the follow-up work is shown in the figure.
08 Project Summary
As the first launch project of the NostrAssets platform, TNA was born in a crowd of support. It obtained 15,000+ coin holding addresses during the release phase and has a good community foundation.
The TNA protocol is deeply rooted in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The domain name system and DA are both extremely important infrastructures. With the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem, various L2s and applications are emerging in an endless stream, and the Tapname domain name will also have more application scenarios. Infrastructure projects often require a certain development cycle, but at the same time they also have a higher ceiling. TNA has a certain imagination space in the future.
