Lightning Labs CTO Unveils LayerTree Bitcoin Scaling Architecture Supporting Millions of Users

Lightning Labs Chief Technology Officer Olaoluwa Osuntokun has unveiled LayerTree, a scaling architecture designed to consolidate millions of Bitcoin owners into a single on-chain unspent transaction output. The design maintains balances in an off-chain Merkle-sum tree committed to the base layer, preserving self-custody and unilateral exits without operator consent. Modeling shows an exit requires approximately 1,020 virtual bytes for 65,536 positions and 1,149 virtual bytes for 1,048,576 members. Batch enrollment costs under 1 virtual byte per person. However, deployment remains conceptual because LayerTree depends on inactive Bitcoin script capabilities and covenant upgrades.