According to Decrypt, Alkanes is a new protocol based on Bitcoin, developed by Oyl Corp, which introduces trustless smart contract functionality at the base layer without relying on bridges or external execution layers. Alkanes utilizes Bitcoin's witness data and OP-RETURN fields to execute and track state changes, similar to Ordinals and Runes, but with added support for WASM based smart contracts. Execution and state transitions are processed through an indexing framework, and on chain activities are associated with the final determinacy of Bitcoin blocks. According to the Jinmaa data panel, Alkanes has become the third largest protocol in the daily transaction volume of the Bitcoin network after Runes and BRC-20, with a peak of 159700 transactions in Alkanes on June 18th. https://www. (wublock123.com)/index.php? m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=6&id=44774