Bitlayer’s BitVM Bridge launched its mainnet on Wednesday, enabling bitcoin
liquidity for decentralized finance via a trust-minimized framework.
The bridge retains customers’ BTC secure by locking it within the BitVM good contract that operates underneath the idea that at the very least one sincere 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 12 months, we have devoted important sources to growing the BitVM bridge, and we’re thrilled to lastly ship this milestone to the group,” Bitlayer co-founder, Kevin He mentioned in a press launch shared with CoinDesk.
“Put up-mainnet deployment, our focus shifts to scaling asset compatibility and deepening integration with further blockchain networks,” He added.
YBTC, a gateway to BTC DeFi
Central to Bitlayer is YBTC, a token that immediately 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 further yield by permitting them to stake, lend, borrow, commerce and supply liquidity throughout multi-chain decentralized exchanges.
The token’s safety stems immediately from the clear and verifiable BitVM good contract – not like wrapped BTC (resembling WBTC), which depends on a trusted central entity to carry the precise BTC.
Observe that YBTC is distinct from Bitlayer’s native token, BTR, which is used for governance, charges and staking inside the ecosystem and is slated to be listed on main centralized exchanges.
Entrance-and-reclaim mannequin
Usually, eliminating centralized custodians implies longer ready instances, particularly within the case of fraud-proof methods like Bitlayer. Right here, whereas transactions are assumed to be sincere, anybody watching can step in to show if one thing went fallacious.
To permit sufficient time for these essential safety checks, there is a built-in ready interval, usually 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 These entities present the withdrawn BTC from their very own funds to customers inside roughly one hour.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 unique seven-day safety interval to finish earlier than getting their funds again from the good contract.
This method gives 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 advised CoinDesk. “The ready time might 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 purposes. It has already secured integration with different main ecosystems, together with Sui, Base, Starknet, and Arbitrum, Sonic, Plume Community and Sundial.
“Our aim is to make YBTC universally accessible wherever important DeFi liquidity exists, enabling bitcoin to circulation securely and seamlessly into various ecosystems,” BitLayer’s staff advised CoinDesk.
The staff added that it plans to determine a safety committee, launch audit studies and conduct bug bounties and open-source their code, making a roadmap that positions BitLayer’s BitVM Bridge as an important piece of infrastructure for BTC’s future in DeFi.
Learn extra: Bitlayer Joins Forces With Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool to Supercharge Bitcoin DeFi