The Build on Bitcoin (BOB) project announced on Wednesday the launch of its first phase, allowing decentralized apps (dapps) to interact with the world’s best blockchain.
The BOB mainnet comes online with $300 million in total value (TVL) and more than 40 dapps already available, the team said on Twitter, declaring “a Bitcoin-driven DeFi summer” with more on the horizon in the next three weeks .
Build on Bitcoin is intended to be a hybrid layer-2 network that combines the global adoption, liquidity, and proof-of-work security of Bitcoin with the decentralized finance (DeFi) features of Ethereum: smart contracts, wallets, and access to stablecoins.
In March, Bitcoin DeFi developer Sovryn used Build on Bitcoin to expand its offering into the Ethereum ecosystem. BOB, meanwhile, has partnered with Threshold’s tBTC and Wrapped BTC (WBTC).
“We are currently working with the two leading BTC bridge providers as we work on our bridge infrastructure in parallel,” said BOB co-founder Alexei Zamyatin. Declutter. “We’ve built a one-click onramp from Bitcoin to BOB that abstracts the complexity of the bridge and makes moving liquidity from BTC to BOB as easy as moving ETH to an ETH L2 that goes live next week.”
Zamyatin said Build on Bitcoin also aims to provide a one-stop shop for Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes, working with teams providing bridges for Ordinals, Runes and BRC-20 tokens.
Image: Build on Bitcoin
While Bitcoin DeFi is the goal, the BOB team recognized that the number one blockchain is not ready yet, making bootstrapping on Ethereum necessary.
Why bootstrapping?
Despite high demand, Bitcoin rollups aren’t done yet. Our approach leverages Ethereum’s established infrastructure to:
• Improve the UX for #Ordinals, #Runes and #BRC20s.
• Make implementing BTC in DeFi super easy, for both Bitcoin and Ethereum users.— BOB (Mainnet Live) (@build_on_bob) May 1, 2024
“Connecting to Ethereum follows a pragmatic rollout approach,” the team said. “Bitcoin rollups aren’t working yet, but demand is high: Bitcoin users need access to stablecoins and DeFi, Ethereum users want to use their BTC and access Ordinals, Runes and BRC20s.”
“It’s time to end the cult-like feuds and unite the two largest Web3 ecosystems to jointly lead mass adoption,” BOB stated.
According to Zamyatin, the next phase of BOB Bitcoin development will achieve proof of work through “merged mining,” improving security without disrupting Bitcoin mining. Merged mining refers to the process of mining two or more blockchains simultaneously.
“Previous merged mining instances suffered from slow block times (30sec-1min) due to Proof-of-Work limitations,” he said.
Finally, the third planned phase will introduce BitVM, enabling a secure BTC bridge with fraud proofs similar to Ethereum’s bridges, BOB explains, ensuring secure BTC deposits enforced by Bitcoin nodes.
“This ensures that users bridging BTC can rest assured that their deposits are safe and that security is enforced across all full Bitcoin nodes – as long as there is at least one person online who can submit proof of fraud,” said he, noting Arbitrum. Ethereum.
To attract more users to its platform, Zamyatin pointed to a BOB merger program that the company is using to drive adoption through dapps that increase TVL and user base.
According to the Build on Bob website, the total value on the platform is currently over $279 million.
“BOB Fusion Season 1 attracted 300 million TVL from 33,000 users in four weeks,” said Zamyatin. “BOB Season 2, which launched today, saw $64 million in TVL inflows across the chain in less than 12 hours.”
“Our mission is to make deploying BTC in DeFi super easy,” said Zamyatin. “Think Yearn Finance for Bitcoin and make Bitcoin assets accessible to Ethereum and EVM users – uniting the two largest Web3 power user ecosystems.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.