Author: TechFlow
The Bitcoin ecosystem has attracted much attention recently.
Whether it is the turmoil about wBTC or the activeness of various L2 and DeFi within the Bitcoin ecosystem, the market remains enthusiastic about Bitcoin-related concepts.
However, this enthusiasm is more focused on Bitcoin itself. Various projects are busy looking for more profit value for Bitcoin and trying their best to be within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
But now that Ethereum L2 has become popular enough, it has also turned its attention to Bitcoin.
On August 20, a new Ethereum L2 called Corn announced the completion of a $6.7 million seed round of financing, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from VCs such as Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, ABCDE, Symbolic Capital, HTX Ventures and Relayer Capital.
Developers from well-known projects such as Polygon and Berachain also participated in the investment in their personal capacity.
And this L2 has a significant feature---it uses BTC through some kind of mapping method as the Gas of the L2 main network, and at the same time looks for more benefits in the Ethereum ecosystem for BTC.
Previously, whether it was wBTC or other DeFi, they all made BTC profits through assets and applications; it was the first time that infrastructure-type L2 used BTC-mapped assets as Gas.
At the same time, the name of the project Corn has also pointed to the crypto-stalk of farmers earning profits from a good corn harvest. An L2 centered around BTC and maximizing related profits is about to emerge.
What exactly should Corn do, and what opportunities are there for early participation and planning?
BTC as Gas
It should be noted that Corn is currently in its early stages, the features that can be experienced on the official website are still under development, and the white paper and instructions have not yet been fully launched. We will make a preview of the project based on the current public information.
First, let’s take a look at what it means to use BTC as Gas.
The Corn Network introduces a new tokenized Bitcoin called BTCN. This is the native Gas token of the Corn Network and is used to pay for network transaction fees.
So you can understand that BTCN is a Bitcoin mapping in ERC-20 format. It is speculated that it is similar to wBTC, but there are some technical differences.
Why use mapped BTCN as Gas? Some reasons may be:
Improves Bitcoin usage efficiency: By converting BTC into Gas that can be used on the Ethereum L2 network, it makes it easier for Bitcoin holders to participate in the Ethereum ecosystem without completely converting their assets.
Reduce transaction costs: Since BTCN is used directly on the L2 network, expensive gas fee transactions on the Ethereum mainnet can be avoided.
Increased value capture for Bitcoin: By bringing Bitcoin into the Ethereum ecosystem, Corn creates new value capture opportunities for Bitcoin, making it more than just a store of value asset, but also an active medium of exchange.
Although Corn has not yet fully disclosed its technical details, based on the existing information, we can reasonably speculate its implementation process:
Multi-party Custodianship: BTCN’s minting rights are not limited to a single centralized custodian, but are extended to multiple custodians, smart contracts, and/or bridge protocols, improving security and decentralization.
Bridging mechanism: Users may need to deposit their BTC into the Corn network through a special bridging protocol. This bridging protocol will lock the native BTC and mint an equal amount of BTCN on the Corn network.
Smart Contracts: On the Corn Network, there may be a series of smart contracts to manage the minting, destruction, and transfer of BTCN. These contracts will ensure that the supply of BTCN always maintains a 1:1 ratio with the locked BTC.
Liquidity pool: Ensure liquidity between BTCN and other assets such as ETH or stablecoins.
Verification Mechanism: A strong verification mechanism is needed to ensure the security and accuracy of the minting and destruction process of BTCN. This may involve multi-signature wallets, time locks, and other security measures.
Finding more benefits for BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem
How can Corn's L2 bring more benefits to BTC?
Corn proposed an ecosystem concept called "Crop Circle". The core idea of this system is to recycle the value of BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem in a variety of ways to generate additional benefits.
In the absence of more public information, we can analyze and understand this official picture.
First, users can stake their BTCN tokens to earn network rewards. This is similar to the staking mechanism of other PoS networks, but unique in that the staked asset is pegged to BTC.
In addition, Corn may launch a liquidity mining project to encourage users to provide liquidity for trading pairs between BTCN and other tokens to earn additional income; at the same time, through integration with other public chains and DeFi protocols, Corn can provide users with cross-chain income opportunities, such as participating in DeFi projects on other chains.
From the official Twitter and blog information, Corn plans to deeply integrate with the existing Ethereum DeFi protocol to provide diversified financial services for BTCN holders:
Lending: Users can use BTCN as collateral to borrow other assets on DeFi platforms, or lend BTCN to earn interest.
Derivatives: Develop BTCN-based derivatives markets, such as options, perpetual contracts, etc., to provide users with more investment and hedging tools.
Yield Aggregator: Helps users optimize their BTCN yields across different DeFi protocols.
At the same time, Corn also introduced two tokens: $CORN and $popCORN, which are similar to Curve's vote-escrowed (ve) model.
CORN, as a base token, is similar to CRV in Curve. Users can obtain CORN in a variety of ways, including staking BTCN, participating in liquidity provision or other ecosystem activities. $popCORN is similar to veCRV, which is a governance token obtained by locking $CORN.
Locking mechanism:
Users can choose to lock their $CORN for a period of time to obtain $popCORN. The longer the lock period, the more $popCORN you get. This mechanism encourages users to hold and participate for the long term, because a longer lock period means greater governance weight and potential benefits.
Dynamic Weight: popCORN’s voting weight may decrease over time, similar to the decay mechanism of veCRV in Curve. This means that users need to regularly “re-lock” their CORN to maintain maximum governance weight, further promoting active ecosystem participation.
Governance and Rewards Distribution: Users holding $popCORN can not only participate in the governance decisions of the ecosystem, but may also receive additional rewards. This may include a share of transaction fees, an allocation of newly minted $CORN, or priority rights to participate in specific projects.
Liquidity incentives: Drawing on Curve's model, Corn may use $popCORN to determine the weights of different liquidity pools. Users who hold more $popCORN can "vote" to increase the weight of a pool, thereby attracting more liquidity rewards to the pool.
Bribe Marketplace: Corn's innovative extension of the Curve model. Informal "bribe" markets have emerged in the Curve ecosystem, and Corn appears to have formalized and integrated this concept into its platform. Users may be able to participate in this market through $popCORN to influence votes or receive additional rewards.
The application of this ve model looks to enhance the utility of $CORN and $popCORN, with long-term holders being rewarded with more governance rights and potential earnings, which in turn increases demand and value of the tokens.
At the same time, this model also finds a unique positioning and value creation path for BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Currently available space
Currently, Corn’s testnet and tokens have not been officially launched, but the official has also released some warm-up information.
At 11pm on the 21st, the project will open a Space on X to talk about the details of the mainnet token airdrop. However, in the initial airdrop stage, only qualified users will be added to the eligibility list.
The screening criteria for this list are thousands of super DeFi users who have used DeFi protocols that have cooperated with Corn in the past 12 months. The specific screening list is unknown. It is recommended to follow its official Twitter and Space for more details.
At the same time, Galxe also launched a social media communication activity about Corn, which will last from the 20th to the 23rd. Players only need to follow its Twitter account, like and forward related posts to earn points, and join its DC to obtain Farmer status.
