Chain Fusion enables cross-blockchain interoperability through network integration and threshold signatures, and today we are announcing the launch of the testing phase for the Deuterium milestone, the next step in the Chain Fusion ICP roadmap.
The first phase of this milestone is the rollout of threshold Schnorr signing keys, enabling developers and projects to begin their testing and integration process.
Chain Fusion Roadmap
The Chain Fusion roadmap aims to gradually enhance ICP’s cross-chain capabilities, making it the preferred network for building multi-chain dapps and services:
internetcomputer.org/roadmap
The Chain Fusion journey began with the launch of Threshold ECDSA signatures, allowing smart contracts to sign Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions, and direct network integration with Bitcoin allowing smart contracts to read and write Bitcoin state directly from ICP.
The recent Tritium milestone released decentralized RPC integration for Ethereum and EVM chains, see the full list of supported chains here:
internetcomputer.org/docs/current/developer-docs/multi-chain/supported-chains
The next milestone on the Chain Fusion roadmap is Deuterium.
Deuterium Milestones
The Deuterium milestone consists of two main features:
Threshold Schnorr Signatures
Schnorr-like digital signatures are popular in blockchains because they are simple in design, efficient, and allow for easier aggregation, multi-signature, and threshold signatures.
Enabling support for Threshold Schnorr on ICP will enable containers to sign masterroot transactions and host a wider range of crypto assets. The Schnorr variant implemented in this milestone is BIP340, which is the variant used in Bitcoin and also used in Ordinals such as BRC-20.
On-chain Bitcoin block header
Currently, ICP only maintains Bitcoin’s UTXO set. This feature will allow ICP to additionally maintain Bitcoin block headers, which will allow smart contracts to access the entire contents of Bitcoin blocks, which is becoming increasingly important as the new meta-protocol tends to write data to block headers.
We are currently in the testing phase of the Deuterium milestone. During this initial phase, test keys for Schnorr-BIP340 have been generated on the application subnet. Once this phase is completed, we can propose production keys on the trustee subnet and officially release them as part of the Deuterium milestone.
It's worth noting that due to ongoing testing and security review, this key should only be used for testing purposes and not to store any primary values.
Benefits of Schnorr
Schnorr signatures unlock several interesting multichain features and initiatives, they support Bitcoin Taproot transactions on ICP, facilitate Bitcoin inscriptions and homogenous tokens such as BRC-20, these features are important for enhancing multichain wallets and creating more “twin” ck tokens (such as ckBRC20) on ICP.
Additionally, Schnorr signatures support direct integration with other chains, resulting in improved efficiency with higher signature throughput and lower fees compared to tECDSA, and future iterations could leverage Schnorr-specific techniques to further improve efficiency.
Schnorr is also widely used on the Internet, allowing containers to sign x.509 certificates and act as a decentralized certificate authority. In addition, it also supports GPG signing of software distributions and forms the basis of decentralized repositories.
Threshold-Schnorr Ecosystem Plan
Multiple projects in the Bitcoin and ICP ecosystems have plans to leverage Threshold Schnorr (tSchnorr) to implement a range of innovative solutions:
Bitomni: Bitomni’s BitoBridge is a pioneering Bitcoin full-chain bridge that plans to use tSchnorr signatures to expand Bitcoin support and facilitate the integration of BRC20 tokens.
AstroX: AstroX will use tSchnorr to seamlessly bridge assets and serve as a keyless multi-signature wallet solution, enhancing security and ease of use.
Helix: With the launch of the tSchnorr container, Helix Markets users will be able to easily trade their favorite ICPs and tokens from various ecosystems. This feature eliminates the need for bridging or wrapping tokens, providing a simplified and efficient trading experience on a single platform.
Omnity: tSchnorr will be the rocket engine for Omnity, enabling the processing of Bitcoin Taproot assets.
Bioniq: Bioniq will use tSchnorr in multiple applications, ensuring enhanced security and performance across the platform.
Want to get started with tSchnorr?
Available resources
Developer documentation:
internetcomputer.org/docs/current/developer-docs/smart-contracts/signatures/t-schnorr
Threshold-Schnorr examples in Motoko and Rust:
github.com/dfinity/examples/tree/master/motoko/threshold-schnorr
github.com/dfinity/examples/tree/master/rust/threshold-schnorr
Taproot transaction demo code:
github.com/dfinity/examples/tree/master/rust/basic_bitcoin
Example of inscription:
github.com/domwoe/inscription_canister
Welcome questions, comments, feedback and discussions in the forum:
forum.dfinity.org/t/threshold-schnorr-facilitating-brc-20-trading-solana-integration-certificate-signing-and-more/28993
We encourage all interested developers to participate in this testing phase and provide feedback to help us feel confident in releasing production keys, and we're very excited to see your projects.
Upcoming production key releases
Based on feedback and security review, production keys are expected to be released in the coming weeks, which, combined with the release of the on-chain Bitcoin headers, will mark the final step and completion of the Deuterium milestone.
Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to production key release, and follow us on X and Medium for the latest news and announcements.
Read more about ICP as Bitcoin L2:
internetcomputer.org/bitcoin-integration
#ChainFusion #Schnorr #ICP生态 #DFINITY
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