Bridging Bitcoin and Ethereum
Announcing tBTC, the first DApp built on the Keep Network
Last week, I shared on Twitter what we at Keep, Summa, and the newly formed Cross-Chain Group have been working on for the past 10 months —
a trust-minimized Bitcoin/Ethereum bridge called tBTC.
See the full Twitter announcement thread here. Thrilled to see the response so far has been tremendous.
This was a great opportunity to get feedback from some of the sharpest minds in the space.
We’re working to respond to excellent suggestions from Bitcoiners and Ethereans on the system design and we welcome you to poke holes and ask us questions.
What does this mean for Keep?
tBTC will be the first major app launched on the Keep network. It will go live shortly after the Keep platform does, and it builds on the work token, random beacon, and threshold ECDSA keeps.
Keep’s stakers will provide the security backing tBTC, and earn tBTC signing fees — as well as revenue from running the random beacon and other apps launched on the network.
Our team has always believed in shipping code that the market needs, today. Our choice to focus on specific MPC protocols- rather than more generic solutions- and to develop for Ethereum, rather than our own chain, has made this clear.
Shipping the first DApp built on the Keep network is an extension of that philosophy. Keep’s privacy-preserving tech is built to challenge institutions, but in the meantime, it can be used to enable interoperability and bring Bitcoin to DeFi.
To help learn more about the tBTC, here is the podcast that was held by Thomas Scaria and Louis Aboud-Hogben at Wyre:
One of my favorite chats so far with Matt Luongo and James Prestwich — two people with the right mindset to build tBTC. The goal is to create something that bitcoiners can rely on, turning every other chain into a BTC sidechain — Louis said.
Next steps for tBTC
In addition to a stronger system design, we are:
- Bringing builders onto our private testnet to kick the tires.
- Working on a significant update on the price feed mechanism in the coming weeks.
- Sharing more details about the Cross-Chain Group and our plan to hand off tBTC to the community.
- Giving a proper public demo of the DApp.
- Open-sourcing this thang and taking tBTC to public testnet.
To learn more about tBTC, read the technical specification draft.
We highly appreciate every comment, come join our conversations on Slack or Twitter.
We hope you enjoyed the article! Please click the 👏 button and share to help others find it.
For more information about the Keep Network:
- Follow us on Twitter.
- Check out our whitepaper.
- Join our Slack.
- Read our business primer.
- Subscribe for email updates.
- Join us on Reddit.
- Join our Telegram.
