A new era of programmable, portable, and cross-chain assets has arrived – and so too has the era of UTXO dominance.
BitcoinOS (BOS) is excited to unveil Charms, the world's first metaprotocol enabling native, programmable tokens on Bitcoin and other UTXO chains—without bridges, without custodians, and without compromising decentralization.
Charms transform how assets are created, used, and moved across crypto. With this protocol, developers can build powerful decentralized apps and smart assets directly on Bitcoin, unlock new applications, and beam tokens to other UTXO-based chains like Cardano, Dogecoin, or Litecoin—all while preserving their programmability and security.
By combining Charms with BOS’ ZK verification technology, we are redefining cross-chain interoperability with a groundbreaking new model for bringing trustless and bridgeless BTC to crypto’s UTXO Brotherhood: Cardano, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and beyond.
At last, Bitcoin is waking up – as a ledger, as an asset, and as the center of a programmable internet of value.
What Is Charms?
At its core, Charms is a metaprotocol that enchants Bitcoin transactions, allowing them to carry fungible tokens and NFTs with their own app logic, just like smart contracts on other blockchains.
Charms transactions cast “spells” on Bitcoin transactions by including token-related metadata into their witness data, which “enchant” the outputs of those transactions with charms tokens. These “charms” are now embedded directly in Bitcoin transaction outputs, powered by zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) and a novel use of client-side validation.
All verification happens locally—there’s no need for indexers, bridges, or additional consensus layers. Ownership is enforced as with standard Bitcoin transactions: whoever controls the UTXOs controls the assets
Charms tokens can:
- Be sent to a regular Bitcoin address.
- Include advanced logic written in languages like Rust.
- Teleport (or “beam”) natively across blockchains while preserving all functionality.
No wrapping. No middlemen. No changes to Bitcoin’s code.
What Makes Charms Special
Charms isn't just another Bitcoin metaprotocol—it’s a complete rethink of what assets on Bitcoin can be.
🔒 No Indexers. Fully Client-Validated.
Most Bitcoin-based protocols—like Ordinals and Runes—depend on indexers, which are third-party servers that scan the entire Bitcoin ledger and track ownership off-chain. This means users and apps must trust these centralized databases to determine whether an asset exists or who owns it. That’s not Bitcoin.
Charms breaks free from this trap. Each Charms transaction includes a zkVM-powered “spell”—a compact, cryptographic proof that:
- The transaction and all involved app logic are valid.
- The previous transactions it depended on were also valid.
- The spell was correctly formed, and nothing was forged.
With this recursive zero-knowledge proof, every Charms client—whether it’s a full desktop wallet or a mobile app—can verify asset state and app logic independently, without any indexer or scanning history. You just need the transaction and its proof.
Every user becomes their own validator. No trust. No off-chain infrastructure. Run a Bitcoin client and a Charms client, and you are a sovereign user of the UTXO superchain.
🧠 Fully Programmable
Ordinals and Runes enabled data inscriptions and simple tokens—but they aren’t programmable. You can create and transfer, but you can’t build apps, enforce rules, or create dynamic logic like lending protocols, identity systems, or NFTs with royalties.
Charms changes that.
With Charms, developers can:
- Write apps in mainstream languages like Rust.
- Define complex behavior for tokens, NFTs, or entire dApps.
- Store app state directly on Bitcoin UTXOs.
- Leverage zkVMs to verify execution privately and efficiently.
This opens the door to Bitcoin-native:
- Order books
- Stablecoins with verified fiat backing
- Auctions, DAOs, and beyond
Charms doesn’t just put tokens on Bitcoin—it brings smart contract logic and application composability to the UTXO model, all without changing Bitcoin’s core protocol.
Beaming Tokens Across Chains Without Bridges or Oracles
Traditional cross-chain systems require bridges, oracles, or external consensus layers to move assets between blockchains. These systems are fragile and often hacked, because they introduce trusted third parties and complex communication layers between chains.
Charms does it differently.
With Charms, tokens can be “beamed” from Bitcoin to another UTXO blockchain (like Cardano) in a purely cryptographic and trustless way. Here’s how it works:
- A placeholder output is created on the destination chain.
- A transaction on Bitcoin then includes a spell that proves:
- The token is being moved to that exact placeholder.
- The token is being moved to that exact placeholder.
- The spell on the destination chain proves using zkVM logic:
- The beaming transaction is included in the main chain (via Merkle proof + sufficient PoW)
- The beaming transaction is included in the main chain (via Merkle proof + sufficient PoW)
- The token now exists natively on the new chain, with its original logic intact.
With this model, there’s no need for wrapping or burning, trusted relayers, oracles, multisigs or bridge contracts.
Blockchains don’t need to communicate directly. All verification happens locally on the user’s Charms client, using standard blockchain data and cryptographic proofs.
This breakthrough in cross-chain movement is the first of its kind—truly decentralized, interoperable tokens without compromise.
When Charms is implemented in its final form, tokens will exist on each chain under their native, widely adopted token standards. For example, that means Charms will be backward compatible as CNTs on Cardano and other chains, effectively opening up new pathways for building on those chains.
xBTC: How BOS Will Unchain Bitcoin
With Charms, BOS has reimagined how it will bring BTC to the wider crypto world.
Using BOS’ revolutionary ZK verification technology, we can wrap BTC into a Charms token - enchanted bitcoin (xBTC) - introducing two groundbreaking upgrades to the world’s largest digital asset.
First, xBTC brings programmability to BTC, much like how wETH enabled smart contract functionality for ETH. This allows BTC holders to participate in advanced DeFi applications and smart contract interactions that were previously impossible with native BTC - directly upon the Bitcoin ledger.
Second, xBTC eliminates the need for traditional bridging infrastructure to move BTC between chains. Once BTC is locked and xBTC is minted, the token can move freely between any Charms-integrated chains without requiring additional locking or minting operations. This dramatically reduces friction compared to conventional bridging solutions that require separate infrastructure for each chain pair. Creating interoperability between chains will be far simpler and faster, and trustless all the way through.
Finally, this opens avenues for less trusted methods of moving BTC between chains - particularly for chains that cannot verify external events, including Litecoin and Dogecoin.
The result is a truly portable BTC that maintains its security while gaining unprecedented functionality and cross-chain mobility.
Open Door To Bitcoin Innovation
Beyond xBTC, Charms can introduce countless still-unimagined applications to Bitcoin and the UTXBros.
🧩 Bridgeless Interoperability
Beam tokens, NFTs, and app logic to other chains like Cardano without needing a bridge. This removes major fees, security assumptions, and frictions associated with traditional bridging, including implementation difficulties, lack of total token support, and
🪙 Self-Auditing Stablecoins
Build stablecoins that prove they’re backed in real-time using zk-proofs of fiat balances—finally solving the “trust” problem in stablecoin design.
🔁 Decentralized Onramps
Enable trustless BTC purchases via platforms like CashApp, without KYC, using zero-knowledge verification to ensure privacy and regulatory resilience.
🐶Cross Chain Memecoins
Charms won't just bring tokens to Bitcoin but also other UTXO chains that have never had their own token economy. Prepare for programmable assets on Dogecoin – memecoins for the memechain!
The End of Wrapped Tokens. The Beginning of Universal Crypto.
Charms are the unchained token standard. With one protocol, developers can build once and deploy anywhere with assets that work seamlessly across UTXO chains. With time, we plan to bring Charms to every blockchain, including account-based systems, creating a unified and interoperable internet of value, anchored in Bitcoin, where it all began.
The first bridgeless cross-chain token transfer between Bitcoin and Cardano has already happened. See here to learn more about that historic demo transaction, achieved May 4, 2025.
Now it’s your turn to build, explore, and enchant the decentralized world.
→ Read the Whitepaper
→ Learn More About BitcoinOS
→ Learn More About Charms
Welcome to the programmable Bitcoin era. Welcome to Charms.
