Bitlayer’s BitVM Bridge launched its mainnet on Wednesday, enabling bitcoin
liquidity for decentralized finance by a trust-minimized framework.
The bridge retains customers’ BTC secure by locking it within the BitVM sensible contract that operates beneath the belief that at the least one trustworthy market participant exists, prepared to reveal malicious makes an attempt to maneuver funds.
This trust-minimized setup starkly contrasts conventional custodians that contain centralized custody or distributed custodianship.
“Over the previous yr, we have devoted vital sources to creating the BitVM bridge, and we’re thrilled to lastly ship this milestone to the neighborhood,” Bitlayer co-founder, Kevin He mentioned in a press launch shared with CoinDesk.
“Publish-mainnet deployment, our focus shifts to scaling asset compatibility and deepening integration with extra blockchain networks,” He added.
YBTC, a gateway to BTC DeFi
Central to Bitlayer is YBTC, a token that instantly represents the consumer’s locked bitcoin. Its worth is pegged 1:1 with BTC, and it opens decentralized finance to BTC holders trying to generate extra yield by permitting them to stake, lend, borrow, commerce and supply liquidity throughout multi-chain decentralized exchanges.
The token’s safety stems instantly from the clear and verifiable BitVM sensible contract – not like wrapped BTC (resembling WBTC), which depends on a trusted central entity to carry the precise BTC.
Notice that YBTC is distinct from Bitlayer’s native token, BTR, which is used for governance, charges and staking throughout the ecosystem and is slated to be listed on main centralized exchanges.
Entrance-and-reclaim mannequin
Sometimes, eliminating centralized custodians implies longer ready instances, particularly within the case of fraud-proof techniques like Bitlayer. Right here, whereas transactions are assumed to be trustworthy, anybody watching can step in to show if one thing went improper.
To permit sufficient time for these essential safety checks, there is a built-in ready interval, sometimes seven days, throughout which a fraudulent transaction may very well be challenged. This will result in longer withdrawal instances.
Nonetheless, Bitlayer employs an revolutionary “front-and-reclaim” mannequin, transferring the ready interval to specialised brokers or third-party liquidity suppliers. These entities present the withdrawn BTC from their very own funds to customers inside roughly one hour. In the meantime, they wait for his or her authentic seven-day safety interval to finish earlier than getting their funds again from the sensible contract.
This strategy affords each trustless safety and a quick, handy consumer expertise.
“There’s a entrance mechanism in BitVM bridge design, the pegout consumer will get their BTC again at bitcoin block time,” He instructed CoinDesk. “The ready time can be left to the dealer(operator).”
Expansive ecosystem
Bitlayer is prioritizing integration with the Ethereum mainnet and main layer 2 options, in addition to exploring Solana and Bitcoin-native layer 2s, resembling Lightning Community functions. It has already secured integration with different main ecosystems, together with Sui, Base, Starknet, and Arbitrum, Sonic, Plume Community and Sundial.
“Our objective is to make YBTC universally accessible wherever vital DeFi liquidity exists, enabling bitcoin to circulate securely and seamlessly into numerous ecosystems,” BitLayer’s crew instructed CoinDesk.
The crew added that it plans to ascertain a safety committee, launch audit stories and conduct bug bounties and open-source their code, making a roadmap that positions BitLayer’s BitVM Bridge as a vital piece of infrastructure for BTC’s future in DeFi.
Learn extra: Bitlayer Joins Forces With Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool to Supercharge Bitcoin DeFi
