Rather than asking whether Plasma “inherits Bitcoin security,” the more precise question is how far that inheritance realistically extends. Bitcoin acts as a settlement backstop, not a continuous enforcer, which shifts Plasma’s safety model toward incentives, monitoring, and disciplined usage. This makes Plasma less suitable as a general-purpose execution layer, but potentially effective as a narrowly scoped payment rail. As long as transaction values remain small, exits remain credible, and operators remain economically constrained, the model holds. The risk emerges not from Bitcoin itself, but from scope creep—once Plasma attempts to secure more than it was designed to carry.
