The Dfinity Foundation, the biggest contributor to the ICP blockchain, launched a developer preview where devs can now test the ICP <> Bitcoin integration.
Why do we need direct native BTC integration?
The innovation of Bitcoin laid the base for the Crypto Revolution. But although Bitcoin is the most valuable and well-recognized blockchain network, it does not offer support for the second most important innovation in blockchain tech — smart contracts, which arrived with the introduction of Ethereum.
Although the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are separate, and thus unable to interact with each other natively, there are currently over 240,000 BTC wrapped on the ETH network which facilitates inter-chain transactions.
Wrapped BTC tokens (WBTC) allow for the use of BTC equivalents within ETH wallets and smart contracts. Despite the advantages of WBTC, there is a major risk that comes with using these tokens: they require intermediary bridges to function on non-native networks, which makes them extremely susceptible to hacking.
A fully decentralized integration
Bridges serve as intermediaries between blockchains; they offer a centralized solution, relying on implicit trust, which increases the risk of bridged assets being hacked.
A recent example of “bridges gone bad” is the Nomad bridge hack, where almost $200 million in cryptocurrency was stolen.
The Internet Computer Protocol aims to eliminate bridges–and the need for trust between networks–by using Chain Cryptography. This enables the holding, storing, and receiving of BTC on ICP smart contracts, with no need for private keys.
Why is the ICP <> BTC integration important for the development of Web3 programming and Web3 users?
“BTC is the world’s largest, decentralized asset pool and payment network. By making direct integration possible, IC developers can create smart contracts that can tap into a lot of liquidity (liquidity is necessary “oxygen” for DeFi), which, in turn, will increase their possibilities for traction and impact. In short, access to the BTC network broadens the opportunities for IC DeFi entrepreneurs.”
The basic version is that this integration is a fully decentralized approach. This contrasts with the traditional method of wrapping tokens where there is a need for trust in some centralized parties as the custodians. Native integration protects the token assets of Web3 smart contract users. One may even argue that it will help BTC users (of whom there are many) more than IC users as this integration provides the first truly safe way to have smart contracts (no unsafe BTC bridges).”
– Diego Prats, R&D Special Projects, Dfinity
Devs can now access the developer preview. Here they can begin using and testing the functionality of the integration.
Meanwhile, an experimental ICP<>BTC ECDSA subnet was released for testing purposes:
– Manu Drijvers, Researcher in Cryptography, Dfinity
The goal of this preview is to locate and fix bugs that might occur—before the official launch —while building ICP dApps that are integrated with BTC.
The developer preview can be accessed here.
*This article was originally posted on fastblocks.com