1/ Big day.
After 3 months of testing, tweaking, and auditing, we've launched tBTC rc.1 on mainnet. I expect it will be the final release candidate for tBTC.
#bitcoin #ethereum 💏
2/ As far as I know, this release is the first permissionless, censorship-resistant Bitcoin bridge on Ethereum. Anyone can mint $tBTC by connecting to the Bitcoin and Ethereum chains, and no one can censor transactions or redemptions.
dapp.tbtc.network
3/ Of course, censorship-resistance is on a spectrum. Today, there are ~67 signers powering the bridge- not 1000s. That number is increasing every hour, and I hope we'll see 500+ signers online before the end of the year.
4/ Regardless, the over-collateralized design of tBTC means that if all signers go offline tomorrow, $tBTC holders still have access to their funds- paid from the signers' bonds.
5/ There are a number of differences between rc.1 and rc.0, which we shipped in May. The big ones are
1⃣ a guarded release, including a supply cap schedule for the first 9 weeks
2⃣ additional audits
3⃣ removing the team's ability to pause new deposits after 6 months
6/ The supply cap grows weekly- starting at 100 BTC, then 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and finally 3000 BTC. This schedule was difficult to come up with, balancing safety, growth, and utility.
7/ It's hard to limit the growth of your own work, but we believe it's in the best interest of users and the wider DeFi space to tread carefully.
8/ Another major difference with this release is the state of the ecosystem. The advent of liquidity mining, pioneered by @kaiynne and Synthetix and ignited by @compoundfinance, has introduced an entirely new market dynamic.
9/ Many liquidity providers have become mercenary "yield farmers", moving from project to project harvesting new tokens. 🧑🌾🚜
Liquidity is no longer the moat it once was.
10/ As we've watched this market develop, we've seen the value and the cost of short-term liquidity. For that reason, even though we have 5% of $KEEP to spend on liquidity rewards, we're going to roll out incentives slowly, seeking to balance stability and growth.
11/ Our first incentive program will launch with @NexusMutal. $NXM holders that stake to provide cover for tBTC minters will be rewarded by KEEP, weekly. This program means any depositor will be able to buy cover for their deposits through the Nexus Mutual dApp.
12/ I'm also proposing what I expect will be a big boon to early liquidity- a new @CurveFinance $tBTC pool. Curve will allow early tBTC minters to build liquidity and, soon, to mine rewards.
gov.curve.fi/t/request-for-…
13/ So... now what? As liquidity grows and more projects integrate, tBTC will become more and more useful.. and the divide between Bitcoin and Ethereum will grow smaller. I'm incredibly proud of the team and community for getting us here, and can't wait to see what ships next.
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