LitVM Tech Stack and Road to Mainnet

LitVM is combining some of the world’s most cutting-edge blockchain innovations to create a Web3 industry first: a completely trustless EVM ecosystem tailored specifically to Litecoin’s tech, tooling, mission, and vibrant community. For well over a decade, Litecoin has served as one of the most secure, decentralized, and censorship-resistant distributed networks in existence. Nonetheless, it has remained functionally isolated from the programmability and composability now commonplace in the modern Web3 landscape. LitVM has arrived on the scene to change that. By bringing EVM smart contracts and zero-knowledge rollup architecture directly to Litecoin, LitVM opens the door for a new wave of yied markts, RWAs, cAI-integrated consumer app, and so much more – and all without compromising on digital silver’s founding principles nor its core functions.

But LitVM isn’t just porting an EVM to Litecoin. It’s building a modular, zk-powered chain from the ground up, using the best tools in the industry to construct an elegant tech stack designed for high-performance everything. LitVM is transforming Litecoin into the most composable, integration-ready, scalable, liquid, and secure ecosystem for the next generation of cutting-edge Web3 applications. This isn’t your everyday Web3 systems model – it’s the dream-team tech stack that digital silver has been waiting for to make its foray into the mass market. With LitVM, adoption-ready Litecoin Web3 is closer than ever before.

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Under the Hood: The LitVM Tech Stack

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The LitVM tech stack has been carefully architected to integrate a series of state-of-the-art technical components, each of which serves a unique and potent function in extending Litecoin’s capabilities. Already deep into development, LitVM is coming together, one game-changing piece at a time. Without further ado, here’s the breakdown on the main components.

BitcoinOS (and Charms)

BitcoinOS (BOS) is a smart contract operating system originally developed for Bitcoin, and adapted for Litecoin to enable scalable zkRollup chains. Successfully demonstrated on Bitcoin in July 2024 (block 853626), BOS leverages advanced ZK cryptography to execute complex computations off-chain while anchoring results to the L1 (Litecoin in the case of LitVM).

The Charms infrastructure is LitVM’s trustless bridging mechanism, facilitating bidirectional capital flows between Litecoin and LitVM (in addition to Bitcoin and Cardano). Charms allows users to move LTC and other Litecoin-native assets to LitVM for use in DeFi, RWA infra, advanced payments, gaming, and more — and move back to Litecoin’s L1 chain at any time. As a fully non-custodial solution, Charms keeps LitVM and Litecoin’s trustless, decentralized vision intact.

By integrating BOS and Charms, LitVM enables programmability and smart contract functionality for trustlessly bridged Litecoin-native assets in addition to BTC.

Arbitrum Nitro (+ Succinct zkVM)

‍LitVM is built on a cutting-edge hybrid rollup architecture that combines Arbitrum Nitro’s battle-tested rollup stack with Espresso’s decentralized sequencing layer and Succinct’s zkVM, delivering the best of both optimistic and zkRollup worlds in a single chain.

• Arbitrum Nitro forms the backbone of LitVM’s Ethereum-side operations, providing a scalable, EVM-compatible rollup framework. This stack ensures seamless integration with Ethereum’s ecosystem while maintaining high performance and customization (such as LTC as gas).
• Succinct’s zkVM adds validity proofs on top of Nitro’s optimistic base layer, upgrading LitVM into a hybrid rollup: transactions enjoy optimistic fast finality by default, yet the chain can produce cryptographic zero-knowledge proofs for any time period. This gives LitVM zkRollup-grade economic finality and trustless cross-chain bridging when needed, while retaining the low cost and high performance of an optimistic system during normal operation.

The result is a high-performance, fully EVM-compatible rollup capable of thousands of TPS at sub-cent fees – making LitVM the most versatile and future-proof stack for both retail and enterprise use cases.

Espresso

‍Espresso’s decentralized sequencer network is a core component in eliminating LitVM’s single point of failure and censorship risk. Unlike most rollups that rely on a centrally operated sequencer, Espresso distributes sequencing across a permissionless, geographically diverse set of professional and community-run nodes powered by the high-performance HotShot consensus protocol. This delivers provable censorship resistance, fair transaction inclusion and ordering (MEV protection via first-come-first-served), and guaranteed liveness even if individual sequencers go offline or act maliciously—making the LitVM chain truly decentralized.

Beyond decentralization, Espresso transforms interoperability by providing shared, sub-100 ms pre-confirmations and atomic cross-chain execution across dozens of leading rollups. LitVM users and dApps enjoy synchronous composability without waiting for slow finality or relying on third-party bridges. This combination positions LitVM as a fully decentralized, hyper-performant hub where Litecoin’s global user base and on-chain activity can flow seamlessly into the broade Web3 ecosystem.

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‍The Road to Mainnet

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LitVM’s journey to mainnet is well underway, and the path is clearer than ever before. With a testnet already in progress, key infrastructure being deployed, and collaboration with Arbitrum ecosystem partners underway, LitVM is actively preparing for mainnet launch. For the forward-lookers out there eager to see what’s in store, here’s the remainder of LitVM’s roadmap to mainnet.

1. Battle-Testing Modified EVM Client

Description: Deploy and test the modified EVM client to ensure compatibility with Litecoin settlement.  

Purpose: Validate that EVM client modifications (e.g., statemanager, BTCman adapted for Litecoin, Litecoin node integration) function correctly for LitVM.  

High level: This step is like test-driving a customized engine to ensure it works smoothly with Litecoin’s network. We ensure it can handle transactions and send data to Litecoin without issues. This confirms the core system is stable before adding complex features, preventing potential issues later down the line.

2. Custom Testnet with Mock Prover

Description: Launch a LitVM testnet using the modified EVM client and a mock prover. 

Purpose: Simulate zero-knowledge (ZK) proof generation/verification to validate LitVM’s functionality without real prover costs.

High level: We’re setting up a practice version of LitVM (like a sandbox) to test how it creates and checks secure transaction summaries using a mock proof system. It’s like rehearsing a play before the real show, but cheaper. This is useful to ensure everything works before implementing the real proof system, and allows our ecosystem partners to test application deployment in a secure environment.

3. Charms (Trustless Bridge) Integration

Description: Integrate the Charms protocol to enable trustless token movement between Litecoin and LitVM.  

Purpose: Enable seamless transfer of assets (e.g., LTC, LTC20) using Charms’ ZK-proof-based protocol, adapted for EVM compatibility, avoiding traditional bridges and liquidity pools, and enabling interoperability with the Charms ecosystem (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Cardano).  

High Level: Charms is a new way to move assets like Litecoin between chains without middlemen or complex setups. We tweak it to work with LitVM’s Ethereum-like system and test moving tokens securely, connecting LitVM to Litecoin, Bitcoin and Cardano. This makes asset transfers fast, cheap, and secure across multiple blockchains.

4. Mainnet Launch

Description: Launch LitVM on mainnet with real prover and Litecoin settlement.

Purpose: Deploy a production-ready rollup with LTC as the gas currency, using Charms for token movement across Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Cardano, and Espresso for broader interoperability.  

High level: LitVM’s fully-fledged mainnet network will launch, using LTC as gas. A suite of applications will be live on day 1, and users will be able to begin utilizing the ecosystem to take part in DeFi, real-world assets, create and partake in culture-focused assets and applications, and more. LitVM’s mainnet bootstrapping phase will officially begin, which will include incentives for active users and builders.

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The Future of Litecoin, on LitVM

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If the tech is too much to digest in one read, no sweat. The bottom line is this: Litecoin’s future is gonna be lit – on LitVM, that is. LitVM isn't just adding a generic smart contract layer to Litecoin – it's redefining what Litecoin can do, and what everyone else can do with LTC (and other Litecoin-native assets). By embracing modern modular stack components and aligning itself with EVM ollup scalability, Ethereum-standard tooling, and Bitcoin-native security practices, LitVM is on the path to become a trustless, Ethereum-compatible ecosystem to bring Litecoin to the next level.

This isn’t just a roadmap – it’s a journey to an on-chain revolution for digital silver.

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