ckBTC - a multi-chain Bitcoin twin, created in a trustless manner by an Internet Computer smart contract that is encrypted by chain keys and directly holds the original Bitcoin. Sending and receiving ckBTC only takes 1-2 seconds to complete with negligible fees, which is only possible if the ICP smart contract can call the Bitcoin network.
Hold, send and receive native Bitcoin as if the Internet Computer and the Bitcoin network were one blockchain, without the need for bridges or off-chain intermediaries.
Use case demonstration
ckBTC comes to Lugano
As part of a multi-chain, multi-wallet upgrade, ckBTC has been integrated into the MyLugano crypto payment application developed by NOKU, an important step in the integration of the Internet Computer infrastructure with the City of Lugano, which will eventually enable a large number of municipal services to use Bitcoin.
Send Bitcoin at the speed of a chat
OpenChat is the first chat network built 100% on the blockchain. Each OpenChat account is assigned its own smart contract that can send, receive and store messages. It can also act as a wallet, allowing users to hold, send and receive ckBTC, invite friends to join OpenChat, and easily receive and send satoshis as fast as chat messages.
OpenChat is controlled by the SNS DAO, which makes the owners of its CHAT governance token the custodians of the future of the OpenChat network.
Tip creators with Bitcoin
DSCVR is an end-to-end decentralized Web3 social media platform where the community forms groups called Portals, creates NFT-gated Portals, airdrops fungible and non-fungible tokens to members, and rewards content creators for posts with a growing number of tokens and ckBTC, realizing a key part of Satoshi’s original vision using Bitcoin for social media tipping.
Core Features
Fast transactions and low fees: Bitcoin is used to carry out small, temporary transactions.
Fixed transaction fee: 10 satoshis
Transaction finalization: 1-2 seconds
Full balance is always provided, no channel liquidity issues
Programmable Bitcoin: Building applications for real-world needs.
Container smart contracts can hold and send ckBTC
Build a web application that supports BTC, users only need a browser
Transactions across multiple chains: Send and receive ckBTC value between addresses on either network
No centralized custodian or chain bridge
Integration with chain keys from other networks like Ethereum
Wallets and DEXs that support ckBTC
What you need to know about ckBTC
Why isn't it a bridge token?
The key innovations behind ckBTC are native Bitcoin integration and ChainKey ECDSA signatures - advanced threshold cryptography integrated with ICP. In short, ChainKey ECDSA is a set of cryptographic protocols that allow Internet computer nodes to collaborate to create ECDSA signatures, which can be used to sign Bitcoin transactions, using a highly fault-tolerant, decentralized network that is resistant to attacks by malicious nodes.
Keys are never stored in one place, but are broken down into key shares held by ICP nodes and re-shared periodically, and when requested, nodes use their key shares to collectively sign BTC transactions without recreating the original keys.
This enables a pair of container smart contracts to trustlessly create ckBTC, a multi-chain Bitcoin twin that can be controlled by smart contracts and sent with near-instant finality and extremely low fees, all without the need for chain bridges or centralized custodians.
This is important because blockchain bridges are centralized, insecure, cumbersome, and costly, and this insecurity alone can ruin a deal: over $2 billion was stolen using blockchain bridges in 2021-2022.
Recent events, in which the FTX exchange acted as a custodian and Sollet acted as a packaging and unpacking bridge for BTC and ETH on Solana, show that bridges and intermediaries can become single points of failure and are extremely vulnerable to hacker attacks. The Ethereum smart contracts behind the bridges make it possible to transfer assets between blockchains, but users still have to trust third-party centralized custodians to manage these digital assets because the code of these assets is usually not publicly verifiable.
Why is it not a wrapped token?
ckBTC is more than just a token. While it implements the ICRC-1 fungible token standard, this pair of container smart contracts also allows Bitcoin to be sent freely between addresses on the Bitcoin network or the Internet Computer, making it the first truly multi-chain asset.
How to evaluate the security of ckBTC?
Multiple security assessments have been conducted on key components of the Internet Computer, such as ckBTC, to ensure strong security. These include the TLA+ model to formally verify certain guarantees, as well as multiple internal and external security assessments. In 2023, both the Bitcoin integration and ckBTC underwent an external security audit by Trail of Bits, which found no serious issues.
How is it different from the Lightning Network?
The Lightning Network is Bitcoin’s most famous second layer, and like ckBTC, it allows for quick and cheap transfers of BTC value off the Bitcoin blockchain.
Unlike the Lightning Network, ckBTC does not require establishing and funding peer-to-peer payment channels, meaning your entire ckBTC balance can be transferred at any time — with no network liquidity limitations.
Container smart contracts can programmatically hold and transfer ckBTC, enabling the development of fully on-chain layer 2 applications for Bitcoin, which is not possible under the Lightning Network.
Another major difference is that ckBTC transaction fees are fixed and do not depend on the transaction amount, variable intermediate forwarding or unexpected channel funding fees, and in the future, thanks to chain key cryptographic integration, ckBTC will also be usable on other networks such as Ethereum - also directly, without the need for a chain bridge.
Read more related articles:
ckBTC: A decentralized mechanism for efficient Bitcoin transfers
How ckBTC solves the blockchain bridge dilemma
ckBTC opens a new era of Internet computers
Chain-Key Bitcoin: The decentralized Bitcoin twin
learn more:
internetcomputer.org/ckbtc
#ckbtc #DEFI2.0 #比特币采用 #DFINITY
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