Native BTC gas. Instant USDC bridging. Bitcoin security, Avalanche speed — powered by NodΞRunr automation. Built for Paul Sztorc's eCash revival.
Bridging Bitcoin and stablecoin economies in one network.
Transaction fees paid in real Bitcoin via blind merged mining. No new token, no pre-mine, no inflation.
Avalanche Interchain Messaging (ICM) bridges USDC from the C-Chain natively. Stable liquidity from day one.
No competing consensus token. Just BTC for gas and USDC for liquidity. Simple economics, zero friction.
Why "Snowside"? The name reflects our commitment to the Avalanche ecosystem and our lineage within the family of Bitcoin sidechains that Paul Sztorc already maintains.
Five layers of technology, one cohesive sidechain.
Bitcoin miners commit to Snowside blocks without running them. They earn BTC fees from the sidechain while securing it with existing hash power.
A dedicated validator set runs Snowside with sub-second finality. Validators are community-operated via NodΞRunr automation.
Users pay gas in BTC. Miners collect fees through BMM commitments. The economic loop closes entirely within Bitcoin — no new asset needed.
The Avalanche Interchain Messaging protocol trustlessly bridges USDC from the C-Chain to Snowside, enabling stablecoin liquidity without wrapped assets.
Validators deploy, monitor, and update via NodΞRunr — the open-source daemon that won a $10k retro9000 grant from the Avalanche Foundation.
[Architecture diagram: Bitcoin → BMM → Snowside L1 → ICM → C-Chain]
Full vector diagram available in the whitepaper PDF
eCash transactions confirm instantly, dramatically improving user experience over existing Bitcoin-adjacent chains.
Snowside runs its own validators, ensuring dedicated throughput for eCash operations.
Avalanche ICM allows trust-less bridging of USDC from the C-Chain without third-party bridges.
Avalanche9000's subscription model makes community-run validation cheap and feasible.
Full EVM compatibility — Remix, Hardhat, The Graph, Foundry all work out-of-the-box.
Multiple Avalanche L1s are already live in production. The infrastructure is battle-tested.
Snowside vs. EthSide (Paul's retired chain) vs. Lightning Network
| Feature | Snowside | EthSide | Lightning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consensus mechanism | Avalanche PoS + BMM | Bitcoin BMM only | Off-chain channels |
| Finality time | < 1 second | ~ 10 minutes | Instant (payment) |
| Gas token | BTC | BTC | BTC |
| Smart contracts | Full EVM | Full EVM | Limited (scripts) |
| Stablecoin support | Native USDC via ICM | Manual bridging | None |
| Node operation | Automated (NodΞRunr) | Manual | Manual |
| Maintenance burden | Low | High (retired) | Medium |
| Validator sovereignty | Dedicated set | Shared with BTC | N/A |
Low initial validator count
Launch with at least 3 community validators. NodΞRunr reduces technical barriers to participation. Validator incentives funded by BTC gas fees.
BMM adoption by miners
BMM fees are denominated in BTC. Miners earn real revenue with zero additional hashing cost. The economic incentive is straightforward and self-sustaining.
USDC bridge security
ICM is a native Avalanche protocol, not a third-party bridge. It uses the full security of the Avalanche consensus — the same mechanism securing billions in TVL on the C-Chain.
eCash specification changes
Direct coordination with Paul Sztorc ensures the L1 configuration tracks the eCash spec. Smart contracts are upgradeable during the initial testnet phase.
Long-term maintainability
EthSide was retired because manual operation was unsustainable. NodΞRunr's automation eliminates the maintenance burden that killed the predecessor.
Regulatory uncertainty
Snowside uses existing, established assets (BTC, USDC) — no new token issuance. The chain is fully open source and community-operated.
Fuji testnet launch with NodΞRunr template; automated validator setup; initial BMM integration testing
Security audit of eCash smart contracts; ICM USDC bridge integration with C-Chain; block explorer deployment
Mainnet launch with at least 3 community validators; public RPC endpoints; developer documentation released
Community AMA with Paul Sztorc; validator onboarding program; first eCash dApp deployments
Validator growth, protocol maintenance via NodΞRunr, ecosystem development grant program
Snowside is a project by 0xShomari, creator of NodΞRunr — the open-source daemon that won a $10,000 retro9000 grant from the Avalanche Foundation.
Current status: Applying for a Team1 Mini Grant to fund the final launch and community onboarding.
Open source. No token. Powered by Avalanche. Supported by the Bitcoin sidechain community.
Snowside is an independent open-source project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Avalanche Foundation beyond the retro9000 grant for NodΞRunr.