Thanks to the efforts of CommerceBlock CEO Nicholas Gregory and CTO Tom Trevethan, Statechains are now a reality on the MercuryLayer. Originally designed by Ruben Somsen, Statechains serve the purpose of transferring ownership of bitcoins in a private, scalable, and affordable environment. However, the original Statechain design requires the ANYPREVOUT soft fork \u2013 something Bitcoin didn't get. But thanks to the efforts of Nicholas Gregory and Thomas Trevethan, MercuryLayer works around the limitations to make Statechains happen without the need for a soft fork.