Veronika Kütt
Veronika Kütt is a researcher and strategist with a long-term focus on Bitcoin. With a background in mathematics and a strong analytical approach, she studies and designs Bitcoin-native Layer 2 protocols and their implications for the future of digital economies. She takes a holistic approach to exploring new ways of living together and alternative governance models, thinking about the future of human systems through the lens of technology and longevity. Veronika currently contributes to Ark Labs, where she researches Arkade, an execution layer built on Ark, to advance Bitcoin toward programmable money.
Sessions
Ark is a Bitcoin-native transaction batching technique that enables scalable, near-instant payments without sacrificing self-custody or Bitcoin finality. It uses a shared UTXO model coordinated by an always-on operator, where most payments are executed offchain and periodically anchored to Bitcoin via onchain settlement.
This workshop introduces the core concepts behind Ark, including Virtual UTXOs (VTXOs), commitment transactions, transaction trees, and unilateral exits. Participants gain an intuitive understanding of Ark’s trust model, how atomicity between batches is enforced without covenants, and where Ark fits into the broader Bitcoin scaling landscape alongside the Lightning Network.
Bitcoin’s base layer prioritizes security and decentralization, but this comes with strict limits on throughput and latency. As Bitcoin adoption grows, second-layer solutions are becoming essential to scale usage without compromising core properties.
This panel explores the current landscape of Bitcoin scaling approaches, including the Lightning Network, transaction batching techniques, and emerging Layer 2 designs. Panelists will discuss architectural tradeoffs around custody, trust assumptions, liquidity, finality, and user experience, highlighting where different solutions excel, where they fall short, and what open questions remain for scaling Bitcoin sustainably.